Bank of America has been recognized by Celent, a global research and advisory firm for the financial services industry, with the: 2023 Model Bank award for Product Innovation in Cash Management; 2023 Model Wealth Manager awards for Personalization and Streamlining Advisor Workflows; and 2023 Model Risk Manager award for Operational Resilience. CashPro, Bank of America’s leading digital banking platform serving clients across 6 of 8 lines of business, was recognized by Celent as a market leader among global transaction bank offerings. Recognized in the Model Wealth Manger Personalization category, Merrill Advisor Match offers a modern approach to finding an advisor and increases access to advice by demystifying the process through a digital experience. Merrill’s Collaborative Onboarding Experience (COBE) was also recognized by Celent for fully digitizing the account opening process. Bank of America’s Virtual On-Watch (VOW), a system that has transformed triage management at the bank, was recognized by Celent for its best practices and use of technology in operational risk management. Since its innovation, overall triage initiation time was reduced to less than 2 minutes from 15-17 minutes. These time savings increase the team’s productivity while maintaining process quality and reducing risk.
U.S. Bank and fintech Kyriba’s clients can now leverage API connectors to send Zelle payments
Kyriba and U.S. Bank are working together to ease the process of enabling real-time payments and reporting for businesses. With new API-powered payment connectors, clients of both U.S. Bank and Kyriba can now easily send instant payments to vendors, customers, and employees from their U.S. Bank accounts within their existing Kyriba dashboard. For clients of U.S. Bank and Kyriba, these connectors reduce time and resources required to enable new payment methods. In addition to instant RTP® Network payments, joint U.S. Bank and Kyriba clients can leverage the API connectors to send Zelle® payments. The solution also provides businesses with real-time visibility into bank account balance and transaction reporting, which helps improve cash flow management.
Regions Bank launches dedicated group for subsidiaries of international corporations
Cash crunch could wipe out venture-backed firms this year, Morgan Stanley warns
Venture investment in the fourth quarter of 2022 plunged to less than half of the frothy peaks recorded in the final three months of 2021, as firms raised just £75.6 billion across 7641 deals. In the US, analysts at Morgan Stanley have now warned that “challenges abound” and the average VC-backed firm could face collapse this year. “At current cash burn rates, the median VC-backed company will run out of cash in [the second half of this year],” the bank’s analysts said in a note. “Broader impacts could be significant, VC-backed companies employ upwards of five million people, and drive revenue in important public equity segments,” they warned. Limited partners, which back VC investors with funds, face over $500bn of capital calls at a time when portfolios had been marked down in value, they added. The warnings come amid a tectonic shift in strategy for start-ups and VC investors, who have soured on the high-growth cash burn strategies that dominated for the past decade. Investors have placed a premium on profitability and called for start-ups to rein in ‘growth at all cost’ business plans.
Analysts call on Block to share details on anti-fraud practices
After an investment firm Hindenburg Research , issued a controversial report that took aim at digital payments company Block and its Cash App money transfer business, some analysts called on Block to release more business statistics and information about its anti-fraud practices. In its report on Block, Hindenburg alleged, among other things, that Block inflated user metrics and allowed fraud on its Cash App platform. Some of the points raised by Hindenburg regarding Block caught the attention of analysts who cover Block. They suggested more information from Block could help allay concerns. “While we understand that (Block) doesn’t want to give credence to short-seller reports, we also think further detail on (monthly active users) and (know your customer) practices would be welcomed by investors,” Wolfe Research analysts wrote. Wolfe analysts pointed out that third-party app data on Cash App’s monthly active users generally matches what the company has reported. The Hindenburg report makes “valid arguments” – including drawing attention to the fee Block charges for its instant deposit feature – which “might increase regulatory scrutiny,” Mizuho Securities analysts wrote. In the Oppenheimer note to investors, Analyst Dominick Gabriele said Block “should share special data given the magnitude of these allegations.” “An internal review process that likely will be done by (Block) given the spotlight from this report could result in a culling of accounts similar to measures taken by (PayPal),” Gabriele wrote.
Over 10 Million BoA clients now use Life Plan; Travel has appeared as a top 5 goal for first time
Available within the mobile app and online, Life Plan users add more than $55 Billion to BofA accounts in two years. Currently, the top goals set by Life Plan users include: Budget and Start Saving (33% of users), Improve Credit (28%), Save for a Large Purchase (21%), Buy a Home (18%), and Travel (16%). This is the first time Travel has appeared as a top 5 goal in Life Plan. This aligns with data from the January Consumer Checkpoint (PDF) from the Bank of America Institute which showed spending with airlines was up more than 20%, and up nearly 5% for lodging, both year over year. Clients across all demographics are leveraging Life Plan to help them reach their financial goals and connect with financial professionals: Millennials and Gen Z have created the greatest number of Life Plans, representing 63% of all plans created. Gen X and Baby Boomers make up 38% of users. 42% of Spanish-speaking digital users are engaging with Life Plan. Since launch, clients using Life Plan set up more than 2.3 million follow-up appointments with Bank of America financial specialists. More than 11.6 billion digital logins occurred in 2022 – a 10% year-over-year increase. In addition, last year, 33.5 million clients interacted with Erica®, the first widely available AI-driven virtual financial assistant, and more than 18.2 million Bank of America clients actively used Zelle.