Bank of America Q2 Saw $18B In Zelle Payments

Zelle P2P payments increased 79 percent year-over-year (YoY)  in the second quarter of 2019, Bank of America said Wednesday (July 17), signaling the latest burst of growth for that payment method. During that quarter, consumers made 69 million payments worth $18 billion via Zelle.

In its Q2 2019 financial release, Bank of America also gave updates on its mobile and digital efforts. The financial institution said 25 percent of all consumer sales were digital and 50 percent of all digital sales came via mobile.

In all, Bank of America now has 37.3 million active digital banking users, along with 27.8 million active mobile banking users. The earnings report also said that 7.6 million consumers have completed 55 million “interactions” with the financial institution’s virtual assistant, Erica, since it was launched in late 2016.

For the bank’s commercial, corporate and business banking businesses, the number of CashPro® Online users stands at 497,000. “Domestic volume of Digital Disbursements (business-to consumer payment solution that leverages the bank’s investment in Zelle®) grew 155% YoY,” the bank said in its earnings release.

Digital also played a role in consumer mortgage applications, with 33 percent of those applications coming in via digital channels in Q2. And 60 percent of total direct auto applications came from digital.

For its payment and debit card business, Bank of America said that total credit and debit spend reached $154.3 billion for U.S. consumer cards. Average card outstanding balances stood at $93.6 billion in the second quarter of 2019 for U.S. consumer cards. The bank’s provision for credit losses was $947 million.

The bank said net interest income inQ2 rose 3 percent from increased interest rates and growth in loans and deposits, while noninterest income increased almost 2 percent. The bank said that net charge-off ratio stayed low at 0.38 percent.

Overall revenue, meanwhile, increased about 5 percent, to $9.7 billion, Bank of America said.

“We see solid consumer activity across the board,” said Chairman and CEO Brian Moynihan.