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Bank of America Corp. continues to break innovation records, this time with its inventor base growing to more than 7,000 employees worldwide.
BofA (NYSE: BAC) said today those inventors have helped expand its portfolio to more than 6,100 active patents and applications. As a result, the Charlotte-based bank climbed to 75th in the Intellectual Property Owners Association’s Top 300 list of U.S. patent owners.
Its 7,000-plus inventors are located across 42 states and 14 countries, with 26% being women. It had 6,500 inventors in 43 states and 14 countries a year ago.
The banking giant was granted 313 patents during the first half of this year, down from 341 in mid-year 2022. The seven tech categories include information security (28%), artificial intelligence and machine learning (22%), programming technology (18%), online banking (13%), payment technology (7%), data analytics (6%) and blockchain (6%).
BofA has the most granted U.S. patents in the financial-services industry.
“Our company invests in technology including more than $3 billion a year on new technology,” said Aditya Bhasin, BofA’s chief technology and information officer, in a statement. “That investment allows our teams to innovate in countless ways to help serve our clients better.”
Michael Young, a top BofA inventor, told CBJ in a previous interview that the timeline for patents varies depending on how developed a concept is. Once finalized, the team performs patent research and an application is drafted, which can take up to three months. He said once an application is filed, it can take up to two years for a patent to be granted.
One tech innovation BofA announced Monday was an AI-focused upgrade to its virtual service adviser CashPro Chat. The tool now utilizes the same AI and machine learning ability as Erica, the bank’s virtual assistant launched in 2018. The revised CashPro Chat will now allow clients to self-serve when using the bank’s digital treasury banking capabilities, BofA said.
Over the last 12 years, BofA has invested $3 billion or more annually on new technology. Each year, BofA budgets roughly $10.7 billion for technology as a whole. Covid-19 has further accelerated its prioritization on digital capabilities.