At a time when clients are engaging heavily through digital channels, Bank of America has announced enhancements to its mobile banking app as part of its ongoing commitment to delivering a personalized digital experience for clients’ banking, investing and lending needs.
Within the mobile app, millions of Bank of America banking clients with either a Merrill investing or retirement relationship or a Bank of America Private Bank relationship can now benefit from convenient, easy and safe access to:
An integrated view of accounts: Clients can view all of their financial information in one location, including their Bank of America checking and savings accounts, their Merrill investing or retirement accounts and Bank of America Private Bank accounts.
Extended Erica® support: The AI-driven virtual financial assistant now supports Merrill clients through insights on portfolio performance, trading, investment balances, quotes and holdings. Erica can also connect clients to a Merrill advisor.
In-app trading: Clients can access and execute trades for their Merrill investment accounts directly in the mobile app.
Streamlined rewards: Clients now have a greater opportunity to maximize their benefits with a consolidated view of rewards and offers across all of their accounts.
A broad set of capabilities in one app: In addition to a complete view of accounts and rewards, the mobile app offers virtually anytime, anywhere access to several banking capabilities to help clients manage more of their financial lives, including spending; bill pay and fund transfer; budgeting and planning; digital mortgage and auto experiences; peer-to-peer payments through Zelle®; shopping; small business solutions and more.
“We are focused on delivering a personalized digital experience that spans and supports the full breadth of each client’s relationship,” said David Tyrie, Bank of America head of Digital, Financial Center Strategy, and Advanced Client Solutions. “Each digital experience we develop for clients is founded on three principles: It should be in the client’s best interest; it should provide information and advice that is relevant and timely; and it should offer the client the choice of the next best step.”
Bank of America was one of the first banks to offer mobile banking and, more than a decade later, continues to lead the industry and make significant investments in this rapidly growing client channel. With more than 800 enhancements already made to its app in 2020, Bank of America is on pace to far exceed the 1,000 enhancements made in 2019.
“The way we deliver, develop and deploy technology is guided by asking ‘What is it that our clients want?’” said Aditya Bhasin, head of Consumer, Small Business and Wealth Management Technology at Bank of America. “This holistic, new digital experience is another step in our journey to help make our clients’ financial lives easier.”
Merrill clients can continue to leverage the MyMerrill app for more sophisticated tasks, including secure messaging with their Merrill advisor, document scanning, e-signatures and more.
Surge in digital engagement
In recent months, Bank of America has seen record levels of digital engagement. The company’s more than 40 million digital users are increasingly adopting and using key features, including:
Erica: In 2020, Erica has helped more than 5 million new clients complete over 75 million requests. Since its nationwide launch more than two years ago, Erica has helped 15 million total clients with over 175 million requests. Clients interact with Erica approximately 400,000 times a day, up almost 100% year over year.
Zelle®: In Q2 2020, more than 11 million active Zelle users at Bank of America sent and received more than 117 million transfers, a 70% increase year over year.
Mobile Check Deposit: Bank of America clients deposited funds using the mobile banking app more than 41 million times in Q2 2020. These funds deposited through the mobile banking app represented 37% of all deposits.
Digital Lending Applications: Today, 55% of consumer mortgage applications and 81% of direct auto applications are digital.