Bank of America - Technology Audit Report

Introduction

After the financial crisis of 2008, many Americans have less confidence in financial institution. The trust and believe decline more with the introduction of technology in the banking industry. Many banking industries have relied more on technology. The use of technology has both advantages and disadvantages. However, many clients focus more on the disadvantages which promoted them to have less confidence in the banking industries. The financial crisis in 2008 has declined the confidence of American in dealing with the banking industries in the United States (Helm, 2010, p. 1). Bank of America is one of the top notch financial institution in the United States. The bank use of technology is the modern way of banking in the United States. The bank emerged from the financial crisis with its public image a bit faded. The bank executives strive hard to revive the image of the bank after the financial crisis the plummeted many customers to lost their homes and properties. Furthermore, the financial institution has become the 2nd largest financial institution in the United States after the financial crisis. Bank of America is not the only company that overcame the financial crisis that shambled financial institutions in the United States. Someone can say the bank’s management did a tremendous job to overcome the turmoil that destroyed many financial institutions in the United States.

Fact Sheet

The company was established on October 17tth, 1904 and it was formerly known as Bank of Italy. The company was founded by Pietro Giannini in San Francisco. The company’s heritage began in San Francisco and was created as the country’s first bank for women. It gave women access to their own accounts where they could manage their wealth without the interference of their spouses. Then, it was later changed to Bank of America in 1930 (Bank of America website, 2018).

Today, Bank of America operates in all 50 states in the United States including the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and more than 35 countries around the globe including Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa. The company has more than 4,600 retail financial centers, approximately 15,900 ATMs, and more than 35 million active accounts and more than 22 million mobile app active users.

The company leadership comprises of the Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, President, Preferred and Small Business Co- head, Consumer Banking, Chief Operations and Technology Officer, Global Human Resources Executive, Chief Financial Officer, Vice Chairman, Chief Risk Officer, Corporate General Auditor, and Vice Chairman, Head of Global Wealth and Investment Management. The current Chairman and CEO of Bank of America is Brian Moynihan and he is leading a team of more than 200,000 employees dedicated to making financial lives better for clients around the globe. He participates in many organizations which focus on economic and market growths. Moynihan is a member of the Federal Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank.

Figure 1. This figure illustrates Bank of America organizational chart

Summary of Business

Bank of America short term business objectives are expanding its business in Africa, migrating more customers to the automated teller assist (ATA), and hiring the best talent around the globe. The bank currently has a financial center in Johannesburg, South Africa and the plan is to expand globally. Therefore, the bank had planned to focus on other advanced countries in Africa. Since the organization strategy is to promote “high tech high touch”, the bank is planning to migrate more customers to the ATA. These machines will perform the same work of a teller. In fact, customers can talk to a real teller on the screen as if you are chatting on Facetime and Skype. ATA provides the services of cashing checks, checks and cash deposit, payments and transfers. Bank of America is also among the best financial institution hiring the best candidate in the United States. The financial institution has MBA program that helps to recruit graduate students and recent graduates program which helps to hire and train college students.

On the other hand, its long-term business objective is to achieve more than 10 percent annual EPS (earnings per share) growth. The bank made this announcement to investors in November 2017. The financial institution long term goal is to attract more investors around the globe. BofA has posted strong financial results in recent quarters. It is an organization that is building financial momentum and has in place the right businesses, the right people and the right plan to achieve both its short-term and long-term goals. The bank is taking bold steps to shift its perspective operationally from an internal focus to an external focus which means the bank is organizing businesses around the customer’s point of view. The bank will be managing its capital aggressively and will push to reach its 20 percent plus ROE goal. To help the financial institution attract new customers, the bank is investing in deposit growth strategies, as well as targeting marketing and advertising. To retain the current customers, the bank is making it easier for its client to do business by improving sales and services and re-engineering core business processes.

The overall evaluation of the organizational effectiveness is exceptional because the organization is making sure each department is accountable. The organization is hiring the best talent that can compete with the changes in financial institutions. However, the departmental level effectiveness depicts that the maintenance department neglects their job duties. Sometimes the offices and bathrooms we use are unclean or not clean properly. The company needs to assign the job to new contractors.

Technology Assessment

The technologies responsible for the operation and success of the organizations are salesforce, workday, Microsoft, and iPads. Salesforce is among the software use at BofA to help service customer’s needs. The software is used to log customers information, keeping track of appointments, signing of customers etc. Workday is used to store employee’s information. Hourly employees used workday to sign in daily, submit timesheets weekly, submit requests for vacations, and paid time off (PTO). iPads are used to perform easy customer service such as printable customers handout (PCH), customers account history, account statement, associate emails, E-doc (Ok tool), and marketing tools.

The bank organizational structure comprises of the CEO of the organization and the head of all departments reporting to the CEO. The technology department was listed among the departments because it is among the major pillars that hold the organization. The Global Technology and Operations Executives, Catherine P. Bessant recently announced that the organization will make sure all financial institutions have iPads and make use of E-doc delivery of customers document before the end of 2nd quarter of 2018.

The obvious areas where existing technology is not meeting the current business needs of the organization is when customers cannot perform certain services online due to security reasons. The services include overdraft settings, request for money to ship to them at home, increase ATM withdraw limits etc. The inefficiencies and redundant system in the organization is when financial centers associates have to authenticates customers anytime they visit the financial centers. It may sound redundant, but it is used to protect customers from fraud.

There are no potential vulnerabilities in the existing systems that could impact operations in the short term and long term. Customers information security is very important to the bank and that is why there are security in place to make sure the bank block every loophole that may cause any potential and future vulnerabilities in the existing and future technology systems.

Discussion of Findings

Technology has become a modern tool use by most commercial banks nowadays. Yearly, many banking industries in the United States budgeted millions of dollars for technology innovations. Banking industries cannot operate without adequate technology in place. The functionality of many banks falls on technology (Major, 1999, p. 27).

It is a critical resource that Bank of America use as its superior tool over other banks. Bank of America use of technology innovation is advancing yearly. Although BofA is competing strongly with Wells Fargo, JP Morgan, and Capital One, the bank still has leading factors when it comes to the use of innovation technology. For instance, before Wells Fargo introduce the use of mobile check deposit, BofA was working on another technology idea as at that time. BofA introduced mobile check deposit more than 6 years ago while M&T Bank just introduce mobile check deposit last year. Bank of America uses technology to communicate effectively with its employees anytime and anywhere around the globe.

Obviously, many banks in the United States uses technology nowadays, but the exceptional and the purpose of using it makes Bank of America unique. At Bank of America, bankers can easily get account updates, credit information of a customer, check validation, make quick and better investment decision, and lots more within a twinkle of an eye. Bank of America uses technology as a channel to advertise its products and services to its clients around the globe. Through the