Mobile banking

Customers Bancorp in Wyomissing, Pa., is building an online borrowing experience for its small-business clients.

The bank owners of the clearXchange payments network and the Early Warning risk management service hope that by combining the two programs, they can remain in control of technologies that will become core to mobile commerce.

The widespread adoption of online and mobile banking has largely happened at a time when rates have been near zero. At some point, rates will rise and the value of the experience will be pitted against the value of a yield for depositors. Rate-hoppers will be able to move at an unprecedented speed.

Two new apps, Penny and Sense, highlight customers' most pressing and interesting financial information without making them search for it. The apps, inspired by Google Now, come as banks worldwide try to provide more sophisticated mobile features.

Citigroup has launched a unit in its global consumer bank dedicated to the development of its mobile banking services and promoted Heather Cox to be its CEO.

Regional banks did a much better job of expanding revenue than their megabank counterparts in the third quarter, but they had to spend more to do so and risk angering investors in a tight-margin environment.

Capital One Financial Corp. introduced a tap-to-pay mobile-payments service, becoming the first major U.S. bank to offer such functionality in competition with Google Inc.'s Android Pay.

Bank of America's long effort to become a slimmer, more profitable retail bank could be starting to pay off. In a tough quarter for revenue growth, its consumer banking division gained traction thanks to branch consolidation, investments in mobile banking and other factors.

IDology, an Atlanta provider of fraud-prevention and identity verification, has made an equity investment in the mobile identity authentication provider Payfone.

In a Q&A, Hari Gopalkrishnan, who oversees mobile banking for Bank of America's consumer and wealth management operations, discusses the mobile trends of the past year, including the difference between what its technology is capable of doing and what consumers are willing to adopt.