Bank of America

Bank of America and PayPal are Only Financial Brands in Apple’s App Store at Launch

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Apple, Bank of America, iPhone, PayPal

Bank of America once again proved its mobile mettle as the only financial institution to have a native app available at the launch of Apple’s new App Store (note 1). PayPal also launched an app on Day 1 (see screenshot below). Both are free.

Bank of America iPhone 2.0 App in Apple App Store in iTunes (10 July 2008)

Bank of America iPhone native app in iTunes App Store (10 July 2008)

Apple launched the store today within iTunes (see note 1). There are 552 apps at launch according to Pinch Media, Here’s the price breakdown:

  • Free – 135
  • $0.99 – 85
  • $1.99 to $3.99 – 110*
  • $4.99 – 62
  • $5.99 to $8.99 – 35*
  • $9.99 – 82
  • more than $10 – 40*

The new Finance category in the App Store has 23 entries at launch. Most are small utilities for calculating tips or splitting the dinner check. Only two recognizable brands are available, PayPal (lower left) and Bank of America, which by design or omission, is listed not with its name but as simply “mobile banking.”

Finance listings in Apple App Store in iTune 7.7 (10 July 2008)

23 Finance apps in Apple's App Store (10 July 2008)

 

PayPal App (10 July 2008)

PayPal app in iTunes Apple App Store (10 July 2008)

Notes:

*Interpolated from graph, plus or minus 3%

1. To view the App Store, download iTunes v. 7.7. Some users including myself (Windows bug?) have reported not being able to see it even after updating iTunes. I was able to access through this link published by TechCrunch.

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Bank of America Hits Two Milestones: One Million Mobile and 25 Million Online Users

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Bank of America, Metrics & Market Research, Mobile Banking

image As expected, Bank of America reached the one-million-mobile-user milestone this week. Last month the bank disclosed it had 840,000 active mobile users as of March 31. With 160,000 new users in the past 9+ weeks, it appears that BofA has stayed on the 75,000/mo pace of first quarter.

Even more interesting to me was the news that the bank has "nearly 25 million" online banking users. That's 3 million more than the bank had last fall, an impressive 13% gain. Six years ago, there weren't even 20 million online banking households in the entire country (see note 1).

The bank also passed along a few other mobile metrics in today's press release:

  • 40% are using mobile for money movement (bill pay and/or funds transfer within BofA accounts)
  • 80% viewed transactions and balance data (leaving 20% who check balances only)
  • In May, the bank had 4 million mobile sessions, or 4.2 sessions per user/per month, assuming 950,000 active users
  • Two-thirds of mobile users are under 35, about 13% are age 35-44 and 20% are older than 45

Note:

1. Source: Online Banking Report: 2008 through 2017 Forecast

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Mobile Banking Uptake: Bank of America Closing in on 1 million Mobile Users

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Bank of America, Chase Bank, Metrics & Market Research, Mobile Banking

Bank of America iphone mobile bankingIn its latest quarterly financial results (here), Bank of America said it signed up 224,000 new users during the quarter to bring its active mobile banking base to 840,000. Assuming the 75,000/mo pace continues through second quarter, the bank should be over 900,000 now and will surpass 1 million in the next few weeks.

Although it’s a nice milestone, it’s only 4% of the bank’s 23+million active online banking users (here). Given that mobile is pushed frequently in the bank’s online banking area, one could argue that 4% adoption is pretty anemic. But according to M:Metrics, less than 14% of U.S. mobile phone users accessed info via the mobile Web in February. So 4% of a 14% universe is much more impressive, indicating the bank has tapped almost 1/3 of the short-term potential for mobile Web-based services, a good start.

To really goose adoption, text-based solutions may need more emphasis (see Chase screenshot below). According to M:Metrics, U.S. text users outnumbered mobile Web users almost 4 to 1 in February, 110 million to 30 million.

Industry forecast update
These adoption rates are about what we expected. In the forecast published a year ago in our Online Banking Report on Mobile Banking, we were relatively bearish short term, projecting 900,000 mobile users by year-end 2007 growing to 2.5 million by the end of 2008.

With BofA reporting 840,000 and assuming they have about half of all users, the U.S. market has likely already passed the 1.5 million mark and will end the year at more than 3 million.

The adoption rate depends on how hard banks push mobile options. Along with BofA, Chase has been one of the most aggressive, showing mobile use in its advertising for several years now (previous coverage here). I love its “Text your account. It texts you back.” Just seven words conveying more than most 3-minute demos.

 

Chase Bank Text Mobile banking

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Bank of America Reports 2.5 Million Users of My Portfolio, its Online Personal Finance Tool

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Bank of America, BillMonk, Expensr, Geezeo, Market Research & Metrics, Mint, Personal Financial Management, Wesabe, Yodlee

image Two months ago we published a table (here) showing active users at the leading online personal finance startups. Below is the table, updated with March traffic and the addition of one more player: Bank of America.

The bank, which offers a full-featured online personal finance management solution called My Portfolio, powered by Yodlee, has 2.5 million active users, according to BofA exec Marina Moore (note 3). That's an impressive 10% of the bank's online user base, and about 6x the total user base of all the online startups combined (note 4). 

Company Users (1) % of Total March Traffic(2) Jan Traffic(2) Chg
Bank of America 2.5 million 86% — — —
Mint 180,000 6% 160,000 150,000 7%
Wesabe 100,000 3% 28,000 41,000 (32%)
Buxfer 80,000 3% 8,400 9,200 (9%)
Geezeo 20,000+ 0.7% 8,400 14,000 (40%)
NetWorthIQ 13,000 0.5% 10,000 11,000 (10%)
BillMonk 10,000+ 0.3% 1,700 1,000 +70%
Expensr Five figs 0.3%+ 2,000 1,700 +18%
Total 2.9 million 100%      

For more information:

Notes/Sources:

1. Users: per BusinessWeek Online, Feb 2008, figures are reported by the companies and may include inactive users; Mint has been updated to 180,000 from 130,00 based on new figures reported in the Bank Technology News article published in April 2008

2. Traffic: per Compete estimates of website traffic for March 2008, retrieved April 21, 2008. Compete estimates traffic from its online data and can be off by a factor of two or three-fold for smaller websites.

3. As reported in a Bank Technology News article published in April 2008.

4. This table does not reflect all the players, such as Intuit's new Quicken Online, just the ones highlighted in the BusinessWeek article.

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iPhone Compatibility at the Largest U.S. Banks

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Bank of America, iPhone, Mobile Banking

As I was holding my family's place in a long line over the holidays (note 1), I took the opportunity to look at the 20 largest U.S. retail banks through my iPhone. They are all passable as long as you are willing to take the time to zoom in and navigate with your finger on the touchscreen. 

The best-looking sites are those with relatively simple hompage designs, notably ING Direct and HSBC and to a lesser extent Wells Fargo. But the hands-down winner is Bank of America, the only top-20 U.S. bank with an iPhone-optimized homepage.

This provides BofA with several short-term advantages:

  • Bragging rights as the first major bank to design for the iPhone
  • A spot on Apple's directory of Web apps for iPhone (here) (screenshot below)  
  • Several mentions in tech and personal finance blogs
  • An entree to the 1.4 million, decidedly upscale, iPhone users

Note:

1. Survey of 20 largest U.S retail banks, by deposit size, made at 4 PM on Dec. 24 from Seattle IP address through iPhone browser on AT&T Edge network.

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Bank of America’s Online Banking Base Up 11%

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: BAI Retail Delivery, Bank of America, Metrics & Market Research

The world's largest online banking base (note 1) grew an impressive 11% year-over-year, rising to 22.8 million active users, an increase of 2.2 million from 30 Sep 2006 (note 2). 

Bill payment grew slower, up 7% or 800,000 users, ending the period at 11.6 million active users. Overall bill pay volume is $224 billion annually, or $1,600 per user per month. Bill pay as a percent of online banking fell more than one point to just under 51% (note 3).  

Online Banking     Bill Pay     % of OL using Bill Pay

2007        22.8 mil            11.6 mil              50.8%

2006        20.6 mil            10.8 mil              52.4%

Change    +2.2 mil            +800,000            (1.6%)
                +10.7%               +7.4%

Notes:
1. As far as we know, no bank in the world has more active online users; however, one could argue that PayPal, with 37.5 million active users in the latest quarter, is larger. Interestingly, ING Direct is closing in on BofA on a worldwide basis. With its Sharebuilder acquisition, ING Direct has 20 million accounts worldwide, about 30% in the United States, although not all are active, which BofA defines as being online within the past 90 days.

2. According to Doug Brown, Bank of America's SVP Product Innovation E-Commerce Channel Services, as cited during his BAI Retail Delivery presentation.

3. See Online Banking Report #137, p. 28, for totals back to 2000. 

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First Look: Bank of America’s New Networking Site — Small Business Online Community

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Bank of America, Small Business

In the past 10 years, we've seen dozens of bank-powered sites targeting small businesses. Citibank ran one for a few years called Bizzed. Back then, they were called "portals." Now, they are "social networks." But the purpose remains the same: Create a destination site for business owners to learn how to run their business better while reinforcing the bank brand as small business savvy.

In general, it's a good idea. But it's extremely difficult to get traction with small business owners who usually lack the time and/or interest to read extensively about how to run their business (note 1).

Bank of America's effort, Small Business Online Community, tries to get around the attention problem by creating forums where specific questions and answers can be posted (press release here). Again, not a new concept, but probably the best way to get something like this off the ground.

Analysis
I registered (see note 2) and spent a few minutes poking around the site. In addition to the forum, the site includes columns by business experts and reader-submitted stories. It will be interesting to see if the so-called user-generated content in the latter category is all self-serving promotions from the small business participants, or meaningful perspectives that allow conversations to begin.

The well-designed site, with Web 2.0 touches, is off to a good start from a registration standpoint. This morning alone (as of noon Eastern time), 300 new members had signed up. They may all be bankers in disguise, but it's still far more than I would have expected.

Other than the small "powered by" link in the upper right corner, the site doesn't appear to have any direct involvement from the bank. Frankly, I'd like to see bank officers weighing in on the financial topics, as long as they take a consultative approach and disclose their affiliation. But I understand the bank's initial restraint.

Note:

1. However, entrepreneurs in the research phase, what is sometimes called "pre startup," often devour reams of material. And since they are often highly interested in financing opportunities, a bank-sponsored site could gain their attention.  

2. A couple nitpicks:

  • Usernames are case sensitive; a twist that tripped me up when trying to log in the first time. The bank should remove that stipulation, especially in a less security-sensitive application such as this.
  • Lots of the material is available as RSS feeds, but other than the little orange icon, it's not very obvious how to subscribe via RSS or email. 

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Bank of America Launches SafePass, but You’d Never Know From its Website

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Bank of America, Public Relations, Security & Privacy

If you were in the office yesterday, you probably heard about Bank of America's announcement of SafePass, an optional out-of-band authorization technique for high-risk online banking transactions. It was all over the news, including the trades, blogs, and a few mainstream press articles. Here's the press release.

The system, common in many countries, but available only at Citibank in the United States (previous coverage here), sends users a 6-digit code via text message. The code is then entered at BofA's website to authorize larger transfers, new bill-pay merchants, new accounts for funds transfer, or to login from a new computer, not previously "registered" for online banking. VeriSign developed the technology.

The service will roll out across the BofA empire this year, with many customers having it as soon as next week. Next year, a wallet-card token "SafePass card" will be offered for customers who don't have text-messaging capabilities on their phones.

Analysis
SafePass is a solid enhancement to security, at least perceived security, since it probably won't do much to cut down on actual fraud losses. It's already pretty difficult to get through BofA's security gates and pull money out of someone's online account. The bank did the right thing in making it optional. Only the paranoiacs, road warriors, or those with unusually high transaction amounts will want to undergo the extra steps.   

So while it may be ho-hum in terms of fraud reductions, SafePass is brilliant marketing (note 1). It's a tangible and easily understood copy-point as to why one should choose BofA over the other 15,000 U.S. financial institutions. Think of the bragging rights they now have (all firsts are U.S. only):

  • First to integrate mobile messaging into the authentication process
  • First to offer optional extra security
  • First to safeguard the process of adding a new bill payment payee
  • Potentially first to offer choice of token or mobile text message for out-of-channel authorization
  • Only bank able to put "SafePass" on their website—a very good name
  • Able to say, "no one has more security options than us"
  • Able to say they are a "pioneer in security enhancements"
  • Able to they "put the customer in charge of their own extra security"
  • And so on …

Congratulations to Bank of America for once again raising the bar in online security.

Rant
While I like what the bank has done, once again I find it astonishing that even 48 hours after releasing the news in a press release here, THERE IS NOTHING ON THE BofA WEBSITE ABOUT IT. A site search for "SafePass" pretending to be from North Carolina, New York, or California results yields just a single obscure business insurance product. Bank of America's search doesn't even return the press release announcing the service!

SafePass is also not mentioned in the bank's security, online banking, or mobile banking sections. I've worked in a Fortune 50 company, so I understand all too well how hard it is to sync advertising, PR, sales, and so on at a huge company. But with 22 million active online banking users, you'd think BofA would be a leader in syncing its website to its marketing plan. 

Am I being overly critical?  It's certainly worth writing about. 

Note:

1. For more information on the synergy between security and marketing efforts, see our full report on the subject at Online Banking Report.

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Bank of America’s Electronic Statement Icon

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Bank of America, Electronic Statements, Website Usability & Design

Is there anyone left in America that doesn't have an account at Bank of America? Probably a few, maybe even some of our readers. But if you haven't logged into your account lately, you might have missed the subtle "green marketing" the bank is using to encourage customers to go paperless.

In the screenshot below and closeup above, you can see the little green leaf next to the words "Go Paperless." It's subtle, as good green marketing should be. The leaf not only makes the link stand out, it provides a small reminder that customers can do a little something for the environment, and the bank's bottom line, while they are online.  

Also of interest (by the second arrow), since I only have a credit card, is link cross selling a free "MyAccess Checking Account." 

BofA "account overview" page (23 Aug 2007, Washington state credit-card-only customer)BofA main account page

Finally, the bank doesn't ignore the important logout page, a often-forgotten piece of real estate that can be far more effective than a homepage banner ad. This month, the bank is promoting it's No Fee Mortgage Plus.

BofA logout page (23 Aug 2007, Washington state credit-card-only customer)

BofA logout advertising

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Bank of America Advertising NSF/Overdraft Protection at TechCrunch

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Bank of America, Deposits, Checking, Savings, CDs

Along with 550,000 other followers of Web 2.0 happenings, I'm a regular reader of Michael Arrington's TechCrunch, although it's harder to keep up with these days as the blog has gone from a couple posts per day to seven or eight. Although I usually read it in an RSS reader, I visit the site once per week or so to read comments.

This week for the first time I noticed financial services advertiser Bank of America, a hardly newsworthy occurrence as Bank of America spent $43 million advertising online last year (here). But the content of the banner proved most interesting (screenshot below); here's what the bank's ad says:

A little knowledge is a powerful thing.
Online Banking Service: Check your balances and account activity so you can help prevent fees.

And the blue button on the right says "Know More Now."

The banner leads to a landing page (here) that discusses a number of topics, but opens to a discussion about overdraft-protection options in the middle of the page (screenshot below). It's very interesting to see a large bank take on this controversial issue in its advertising. It's a good sign that the banking industry is taking the criticisms seriously and is working to educate users on how to avoid fees, even if does impact short-term fee income (see my discussion of how mobile alerts can be used to keep users informed, here).

BofA landing page from TechCrunch ad

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Compete’s May Online Financial Shopping Scorecard

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Bank of America, Compete, ING Direct, Metrics & Market Research

Last month, we introduced the Financial Services Monthly Performance scorecard produced by Compete. Here's the second installment, summarizing the overall performance of 23 large U.S. financial institutions and lead-generation sites. For more information, including the detailed methodology and companies tracked, refer to that post (here).

The highlights:

  • Financial shopping was down or flat in most categories, especially savings accounts; not surprising given the typical tax-time spike in April.
  • The main exception to the trend was checking, which grew a phenomenal 31% in May compared to April. 
  • The main drivers of checking account growth: Bank of America's promotion of free MyAccess Checking (see coverage here) and, to a lesser extent, Wachovia, whose Google/MSN marketing caused a major spike in traffic
  • But it wasn't all rosy in checking accounts: While BofA was experiencing 25% growth in applications, ING Direct went through a typical post-launch downturn with a 50% decline in application volume
  • Credit card conversions were up dramatically, with a 5% increase in application volume despite a 6% drop in shoppers, resulting in a 22% conversion ratio (see note 1) 

Note:

1. Compete revised its card applications show in the previous report. The revised number of card applications:
     March 2007: 1.57 million instead of 1.71 million
     April: 1.70 million instead of 1.88 million with 8% growth instead of 9% 

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