Simplicity was one of the major themes at the 8th annual Loyalty Expo held in April in Orlando. Bank of America also wants to keep things simple to retain and expand its brand loyalty.
“We continue to invest in young new talent in our company,” Bank of America Chairman and CEO Brian T. Moynihan said during the company’s second-quarter earnings conference call on July 15, according to Seeking Alpha. “We hired a record number of teammates from college, over 1,200, and we have our intern program to over 1,800 this summer. And we continue to invest as we have said in technology, so that was $3 billion we spent this year to continue to improve and drive our products and our capabilities in the company. As we are doing that, we continue to focus on our process improvement. Our simplified and improved effort continues to take hold. The goal of that program is to hold the costs, manage them well as the economy continues to recover and our revenues continue to recover.”
During the quarter, Bank of America’s consumers spent $127 billion on debit and credit cards, which represents a 3% increase from the same period last year.
Bruce R. Thompson, Chief Financial Officer for Bank of America, said that the company continues to see a shift in consumer behavior patterns: Customers moving away from branches and toward more self-service.
For example, Thompson said the number of mobile banking customers continues to grow and increased to more than $17.6 million during the second quarter.
“These customers look to mobile devices for approximately 13% of all transactions, all deposit transactions,” Thompson said. “If we look at some of the key drivers and trends within the consumer area, we remain a leader in many aspects of consumer banking, doing business with roughly half of all U.S. households.”
What’s more, Thompson said that while Bank of America reduces its overall headcount, it continues to invest in the growth opportunity from its preferred client base.
“We’ve been increasing sales specialists in the financial centers and that’s resulted in increased activity,” he added.