Bank of America: Modern Workers Expect ‘Effortless’ Mobile-First Card Experience

Modern professionals expect more from corporate card programs than ever before.

As hybrid work takes hold and decentralized spending becomes the norm, professionals are pushing back on clunky programs that slow them down.

“Today’s workforce … is global, it’s distributed and always connected,” Bank of America Managing Director and Head of Global Card Product Development Olga Terezi told PYMNTS.

Traditional tools that once seemed flexible enough struggle to keep pace when layered onto remote workflows.

“There’s a growing demand for real-time visibility and control, self-service capabilities and a mobile-first experience that feels effortless,” Terezi said.

Accustomed to on-demand services and real-time data access in their personal lives, employees today expect the same seamless, mobile-friendly experience from workplace finance tools. For the financial institutions that power those corporate transactions and expenses, meeting this demand can be less a matter of convenience and more an operational imperative.

Bank of America’s answer to this evolution is Global Card Access, an all-in-one card management platform designed initially for online use and now available as a mobile app. More than 80% of cardholders globally are engaging with the Global Card Access digital tools, and mobile usage has grown 40% year over year, she said.

“Clients really are embracing this new way of working,” Terezi said, adding that 25% of the Global Card Access platform’s total sign-ins now take place on a mobile device.

Empowering Cardholders, Streamlining Administration

The ongoing structural shift impacting the workforce is creating new expectations around what corporate card tools should be able to do. Commercial cards are unique in that they serve two distinct stakeholders, including the program administrators who set policies and enforce controls, and the business travelers and employees who use cards in the field.

On one side, program administrators oversee large volumes of transactions across regions, currencies, departments and user profiles, Terezi said. Their job demands airtight security, compliance and a bird’s-eye view of spend patterns.

For this group, Bank of America emphasizes automation (such as for issuing cards or setting spending limits) and analytics that give program owners real-time insights into how their program is performing, she said.

On the other side, cardholders simply want their cards to work without hassle. They want to complete a purchase, track their expenses and move on. Historically, simple tasks like recovering a PIN, viewing transaction details or locking a misplaced card required time-consuming back-and-forth between cardholders and administrators and sometimes support from servicing teams.

“With our platform, cardholders get 24-by-7 digital access to handle tasks that would have required administrator support,” Terezi said. “Cardholders come to administrators with questions every day, even several times a day. It’s a huge volume of inquiries on top of everything else they’re doing.”

Features such as real-time alerts, PIN access, temporary card locking, and integration with mobile wallets and ridesharing apps not only make life easier for cardholders but also reduce administrative workload.

“Cardholders are getting this smooth, self-sufficient experience, and administrators are getting time back to work on strategic priorities,” she said. “It’s truly a win-win.”

Elevating Card Tools Based on Client Feedback

Leaning on its history of bringing client feedback into the product development process, Bank of America has been listening, Terezi said. One of the latest components of Bank of America’s Global Card Access strategy is unifying scattered card management tools into a single place.

“We embarked on a multiyear journey to bring everything together under one roof,” she said, adding that previously, cardholders and administrators often needed different systems or multiple logins to manage various aspects of the card lifecycle.

Another client-focused enhancement is a rethink of decline messages. Historically, error codes like “057” or “exceeded MCC limit” were cryptic to most users, creating frustration and driving support calls. That experience was ripe for change.

“Cardholders are going to see clearer, more actionable messages that give them real-time guidance,” Terezi said.

Instead of generic codes, users will be told why a transaction didn’t go through and what steps to take next to resolve the problem.

“It’s a small change, but it makes a big difference in the day-to-day traveler experience,” she said.

Frictionless Access, Real-Time Insights and Embedded Ecosystems

When asked about where the commercial card space is heading, Terezi named three areas of focus, including “instant digital access, smarter intelligence and seamless integration.”

The first, instant access, is about making digital card issuance standard across industries.

“It’s really clear that expectations have changed,” Terezi said, adding that Bank of America is exploring expanded use cases where clients can provision cards to mobile devices or receive account credentials digitally in minutes, no physical card required.

The second area, smarter intelligence, uses advanced analytics and artificial intelligence to predict user behavior and program outcomes. Instead of compliance teams combing through reports for anomalies, sometimes days or weeks after the fact, future systems may dynamically suggest policy changes and auto-adjust settings based on usage patterns and predefined tolerance levels.

“There’s a real opportunity here to shift from reactive to proactive,” Terezi said. “This is really where I think we’ll start to see a lot of advancements.”

The third area, seamless integration, acknowledges that card tools shouldn’t stand alone. That means building APIs and partnerships that meet clients where they are by embedding corporate card functionality into widely used platforms like ERP systems or travel booking tools so that spend management becomes part of a unified workflow.

“Clients don’t necessarily want another system to sign into,” Terezi said. “By giving clients tools that are digital, fast and secure, we’re simplifying corporate card management, improving the client experience and empowering [clients] to focus on what really matters: growing and optimizing their business.”

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