Bank of America 2003 Annual Report Download - page 8

Raising the Bar in Product Innovation
in convenience and speed wouldn’t do
the job for our customers.
We needed to reinvent the mortgage
experience. Seizing the opportunity to
innovate, we created a whole new deliv-
ery process that can eliminate most of
the paperwork and cut waiting time
from days, and sometimes even weeks,
to just minutes. As a result, Bank of
America in 2003 made mortgage loans
and home equity loans to more than
1 million families.
For customers with qualified credit
histories and existing relationships with
the bank, we found ways to eliminate
fully 80% of the paperwork traditionally
associated with mortgage applications,
while remaining within acceptable risk
parameters. More than half of our mort-
gage customers in 2003 used the new,
faster process.
Having cut paperwork, we improved
customer access to our mortgage prod-
ucts and reduced waiting time with an
innovative use of Web-enabled technol-
ogy that we call LoanSolutions.® The
LoanSolutions platform allows Bank of
America associates in our banking
centers to provide a mortgage loan
decision to their customers on the
spot, within minutes, eliminating the
time, uncertainty and cost of obtaining
approval from a central office. This
means customers apply for mortgages
in the same place they are accustomed
to doing the rest of their banking, they
get the type of mortgage that best suits
their particular needs and circum-
stances, and they obtain an answer
right away. In fact, nearly 60% of our
customers who applied for mortgage
financing through LoanSolutions in
2003 received on-the-spot approval.
Because it allows us to sell mort-
gage products in our banking centers,
LoanSolutions expands our ability to
get more mortgage loans to more fam-
ilies in all our communities. It also
enables our associates to assess their
customers’ banking needs and offer
them additional products and services.
Although it might be a while before
we see a mortgage market as robust as
that of 2003, the product and process
improvements we’ve already made will
continue to benefit our customers and
keep us competitive in any interest-
rate environment.
Future enhancements will allow
customers to track their mortgage
loans throughout the fulfillment
process, in real time, from their home
or office computers, in much the same
way many of us track package deliver-
ies today. We’re also looking at ways to
adapt some of the advantages we
designed into our streamlined mort-
gage process so that our customers
can utilize them in applying for and
using credit and debit cards.
12 BANK OF AMERICA 2003 BANK OF AMERICA 2003 13
7.2 million
3.24 million
5.7 million
4.7 million
GROWING ACTIVE USERS OF ONLINE BANKING
New Features Bring Added Convenience
The innovative Mini Visa® Credit Card, introduced in 2002, had continued success
in 2003 with the addition of the check card feature. Designed to hang on a key chain,
much like a grocery discount card, the Mini Card is always at hand. It eliminates
the need to pull out a wallet, reach into a handbag, or even carry them. It’s a great
solution for bicyclists, beachgoers, parents carrying infants and anyone who wants
a convenient way to pay. Accounts that have the Mini Card are being used for
purchases more often and carry higher balances.
With Bill-pay
In 2003, active users of our online
banking service passed the 7 million
mark, more than any other bank. And
organizations ranging from Global Finance
magazine to Jupiter Research and Nielsen
ranked our Web site best-in-class.
Our efforts to improve customer
satisfaction resulted in higher growth.
We discovered in 2003 that many
customers who chose to sign up for
online banking were not completing the
enrollment process. Research told us why.
In addressing our customers’ concerns
about security, we had designed online
enrollment to rely on account numbers
and other identifiers. While these
identifiers were less personally sensitive,
they were not always readily available
when customers were at their computers.
As it turned out, customers were
leaving their computers to search for
those identifiers. Often, they never
returned to complete their enrollments.
Interviews revealed that in addition
to security, customers value a simple
enrollment process.
Based on this research, we switched
to identifiers that most consumers have
memorized, and we upgraded our security
procedures while simplifying the process
from five screens to one. As a result, the
enrollment success rate increased 23%,
totalling 100,000 completed enrollments
per month. We also saw our costs go
down because customers didn’t need to
call for help as often.
Then we took the next step and
simplified the online bill payment process,
reducing the number of screen fields by
half, which helped to increase use of the
service by 84% in 2003.
The Best Online
Banking Site Gets
Even Better
1.77 million
2.44 million
December, 2003
June, 2003
December, 2002