Bank of America’s efforts to boost its digital tools are paying off, and the $3.1 trillion bank plans to continue its technology investments amid increased customer adoption of the bank’s digital tools.
The bank invested in and implemented $800 million in technology in the second quarter, Chief Financial Officer Alastair Borthwick said during today’s earnings call. “Reduced costs associated with continued shifts in client behavior to digital engagement is also allowing us to invest in higher marketing, more technology, and higher wages for our people.”
The bank’s Q2 technology efforts follow the bank’s first-quarter announcement to increase its technology initiatives budget to $3.6 billion.
Meanwhile, the bank reported a net income of $6.2 billion in Q2, down from $9.2 billion year over year. Despite spending approximately $425 million on regulatory matters, noninterest expenses remained flat quarter over quarter, partly due to the bank’s efforts to scale up its technology, Chief Executive Brian Moynihan said on the call.
“Once again, we drove more users, saw more logins and usage, and that generated 20% more sales from the platform compared to last year,” he added.
For example, the bank’s active digital users increased 5% YoY to 43 million, according to the earnings presentation. The bank’s virtual financial assistant, Erika, also posted a 30% YoY increase in interactions to 27.6 million, and the bank’s CashPro app facilitated $537 billion in payment approvals, up 120% YoY for the quarter.
Zelle transactions outpaced checks written in Q2, with the bank recording 156 million Zelle transactions, compared to 123 million written checks, according to the presentation.
On the wealth management side, financial advisors and digital capabilities enabled the bank’s Merrill investment division to gain almost 4,500 net new households, Borthwick said.
“We also gained 650 more in the private bank this quarter, and that’s a very solid showing … given the complexities of serving our clients in challenging market conditions over the past 90 days,” Borthwick said.
