Bank of America continues to aggressively pursue technology patents.
The bank announced Wednesday that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted it 341 patents during the first half of 2022 — a 50% increase compared with the same period last year and a half-year record for BofA.
The latest patents cover technology advances in security, privacy, fraud detection, payment technologies, artificial intelligence, machine learning and mobile banking, the bank said. About 1,000 of the patents relate to security.
Bank of America says it now has more U.S. patents than any other financial services company. All told, it has 5,556 patents pending or granted.
The bank touts its many patents as proof of its ability to innovate and cultivate new ideas among its staff and of the diversity of its "inventors." Of the 6,500 bank employees who have applied for patents in 43 U.S. states and 14 countries, about 26% are women. (The employees submit applications related to their work, but Bank of America owns any patents that are granted.)
Some analysts have given props this year to BofA for its technological innovations, especially in the areas of mobile and online banking.
"Bank of America has been ahead in measuring, monitoring and managing digital banking investments, engagement and results," Mike Mayo, managing director and head of U.S. large-cap bank research at Wells Fargo Securities,
After a decade of multibillion-dollar tech investments by banks, efficiency ratios have begun to improve and headcounts drop, some industry watchers say. Skeptics counter that other reasons are at play and that it's all hard to measure.
The bank's digital banking offerings, its Erica chatbot, its use of big data, and its automated self service have all helped it provide better customer service at lower cost than in the past, he said.
Bank of America's leaders in the past have said they plan to vigorously defend its patents against any competitors who violate them.
But bank executives have also acknowledged that some of these patents are hard or impossible for BofA to implement in the real world. At the
"If you think about the blockchain, we have hundreds of patents on blockchain as a process and as a tool and as a technology," Moynihan said. "But if you think about what issues cryptocurrency is trying to solve, like cross-border movement, those are real issues and the industry is moving faster to solve them. But the reality is that by regulation we're not really allowed to engage. So on the trading side we could do it. But we're not engaging in accounts for people in cryptocurrency and stuff. We're just not allowed to, frankly. Because we're regulated, they've said, you can't. They've said you have to ask us before you do and by the way, don't ask us."
