Missed in 4Q Noise: The Tech That's Reshaping Banking

JPMorgan Chase

Reporting the number of active users on its consumer mobile app has become as standard as disclosing loan growth for JPMorgan. In the fourth quarter, the company reported a 20% increase in users from a year earlier, making it the leader for mobile banking usage of major U.S. banks, said Marianne Lake, chief financial officer.

Citigroup

Citi has spent the last several years shrinking its retail presence around the U.S., but slightly more than half of the deposit customers in those abandoned markets have stayed with the bank. Serving those customers has become a driving force in Citi's digital strategy, said CFO John Gerspach. "We think that that's more responsive to the way people are really going to access their bank in the future," he said.

Wells Fargo

The focus on controlling expenses is intense, but CEO John Stumpf said he isn't penny-pinching when it comes to digital innovation.

"We're spending also a lot of money on items and issues, and things that create convenience for customers," he said, mentioning mobile payments for example. "We always try to take a long-term view."

Bank of America

B of A had several tech stats to share throughout its call. Account openings on digital channels were up 31% in the fourth quarter compared to a year earlier. In a recent week, 16,000 customers used its digital portal to schedule in-person appointments. Mobile banking users increased 13% to 18.7 million and 15% of its deposits were done through a mobile device in the quarter. "We expect these adoption trends to play an increasing role in future performance and customer satisfaction," said CFO Paul Donofrio.

U.S. Bancorp

The Minneapolis-based bank is trying to build technology that looks not only at who its customers are and what they expect now, but what they are likely to expect next, particularly with mobile banking, said CEO Richard Davis. He added that the company will begin to disclose more information about its innovation budget "and the kind of money we're spending to be at the front end of some of those new ideas."

PNC Financial Services Group

Blockchain technology became the darling of banking late last year, but there was little said of the technology that promises rapid and transparent settlement on earnings calls, with the exception of PNC. CEO Bill Demchak listed the technology as one of the areas where he'd like to spend the company's capital, rather than buying banks. He also noted that the bank is in the "late innings" of a push to strengthen its core systems, tighten its cyber-defenses and modernize its applications.