Bank of America is doubling down on innovation to drive further adoption of its digital-banking mobile app for businesses, and turning to its clients for input on enhancing user experience and feature functionality.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank’s CashPro mobile app has been granted 16 patents and has 21 more pending, as of June 20. One example where the bank strives to stay ahead of its competition: While rivals have two apps — one for authentication and one for banking — BofA handles both functions within the same app, said Jennifer Sanctis, product head of the CashPro app and personalized technologies in the bank’s global payment solutions unit. 

CashPro handles treasury and payment needs for about 40,000 businesses ranging from small businesses to global corporate companies. 

Bank of America approaches innovation around app feature development from several angles.

“We focus on inventing for the client and what is the client asking for, but then we also look a lot at technical trends and where is technology going? And how can we invent off of that?” said Taylor Farris, director and product manager of CashPro security, authentication and identity. “Industry trends as well — where do we need to stay ahead if?”

Finance professionals, corporate treasurers, accounts payable and receivable staff and C-suite executives use CashPro to manage their treasury, trade, credit and investments. That includes making payment approvals or decisions related to fraud, or depositing checks, Sanctis and Farris said during a recent interview.

The app was launched in 2018, but the COVID-19 pandemic was the catalyst for its growth and adoption, “when it turned into a business continuity tool,” said Sanctis, who leads design and development of CashPro’s mobile capabilities.

Bank executives expected demand to level out as the pandemic waned; instead, it increased, as business clients who’ve grown accustomed to the app use it to handle more daily functions. Payment approvals is one of the app’s highest growth areas, with clients approving billions of dollars in payments each day, Sanctis said.

That growth has led the bank to invest heavily and keep close tabs on what business customers want from the app. 

When it comes to cash management, Bank of America is investing hundreds of millions of dollars annually to enhance digital products and capabilities such as CashPro, CEO Brian Moynihan said during a May conference appearance. The bank declined to detail how much it plans to spend on CashPro this year; broadly, the lender plans to spend $3.8 billion on new technology initiatives in 2024.

The bank’s business clients have multiple banking partners, and in the highly competitive mobile app landscape, Bank of America competes with global and super-regional banks, Sanctis said. The lender aims to keep a finger on the pulse of what rivals are doing, but also works hand-in-hand with clients to enhance the app, she said.

To that end, the bank has advisory groups with business clients, where it gathers input and feedback designed to fuel improvements to the app, Sanctis said. What those business customers have come to expect on the consumer side is a major factor driving app innovation, she and Farris noted. 

“As our client base continues to change and the users change, their demands change, and they think more about the reflection of the convenience of the app space from their consumer life, and they want that experience on the commercial side,” Sanctis said.

One patented feature Farris said the bank worked closely with clients to develop: allowing users to authenticate their computer sign-on using their mobile device, involving scans of a QR code and a user’s face. When that function was launched for some users in September 2022, it drove 14,000 app downloads that month; the bank made it available to all users last August, Sanctis said. 

Another feature the bank has added in an effort to make security seamless: When a client seeks to approve a payment, they'll see a review and submit page where they're challenged for a mobile token, Farris said. 

“That token’s like your step-up authentication, which is tied to your device and tied to your identity, and that's where we have a patent on how it's kind of integrated throughout the payment approval process,” she said. Farris recently surpassed her inventor father in terms of number of patents granted.

Sanctis and Farris seek to continue enhancing the app’s value while making sure clients are engaged. The team behind CashPro is next focused on rolling out two-factor authentication for all, not just as an opt-in. 

“What we are doing within the digital experience hopefully will encourage them to continue to expand their relationship with us,” Sanctis said. 

In recent months, CashPro has added chat capabilities that tap the same artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities as Erica, BofA’s virtual financial assistant, and added a digital tool called Insights, which analyzes clients’ information within the platform, to arm customers with knowledge culled from a wealth of data.

Data intelligence is another area where the bank is soliciting input from its business clients to inform its next moves. CashPro’s first Insights offering, related to security, was launched last year. 

The lender considers how it can give clients information in an engaging way that encourages them to act on it, she said. The security data tool displays a meter and then offers clients a recommended task, in an effort to “gamify” security, Sanctis said.

Bank of America has four payments Insights in an early adopter program that includes 100 clients — the bank has yet to announce when those will be broadly available — and more insights are actively in development, Sanctis said.

By Caitlin Mullen on June 26, 2024
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