Bank of America Denies Rumors of Mobile Check Deposit Delays and Fees

Bank of America says reports that circulated this morning saying the bank has delayed its launch of a mobile check deposit app to the second half of 2012 are half true. The launch is scheduled for sometime after June 30. However, bank spokesperson Tara Burke says this has always been its timeline (although she later acknowledged that she doesn't remember launch dates the bank may have provided in the past).

"We're not about being first to market, we're about being right to market," Burke says.

Burke also denies the earlier reports' speculation that the bank plans to charge fees for the service. "There will be no fees," Burke says.

Bank of America has nine million mobile banking users, many of whom have been eagerly waiting for their bank to let them deposit checks by snapping photos of them with their smartphone, a feature it began talking about over a year ago. Among the bank's big New York City competitors, Chase began offering mobile check deposit in July 2010. Citi has been piloting the feature and says it will offer it broadly later this year.

At Bank of America, "Our initial tests for remote deposit were very successful," Burke says. "We continue to pilot and we continue to take learnings from those pilots.

The bank has offered remote check deposit using a small desktop scanner to small businesses since November 2010. It provides the scanners for free.

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