B of A to debut mobile PFM features

By Mary Wisniewski for Payments Source

Bank of America’s forthcoming mobile app update will include personal financial management features.

With its latest update coming to customers in January, the bank will offer customers the ability to set up budgets, including an option to set up a budget automatically based on a customer’s past behavior. It will also let customers view spending trends from the past 13 months, including analysis on income versus spending trends.

The planned update comes as an increasingly number of apps like Digit and Qapital offer customers ways to better manage their money on the fly.

Historically, banks have struggled with how to integrate in PFM features into mobile apps — a device used to make quick decisions, rather than dwell in lengthy readings. Bank of America’s latest news underscores a slow but growing change in the industry: acceptance of PFM in mobile.

Previously, B of A offered a version of the budgeting functionality online but not in its mobile app. Currently, the in-house built technology is only focused on Bank of America accounts. In other words, the functionality will not crunch outside financial accounts.

The update will also include the ability to view account balance without needing to enter a user name and password. Such functionality has become popular among several banks.

B of A says it has more than 21 million mobile active users.

This article originally appeared in American Banker.

First appeared at Payments Source