CHARLOTTE — Bank of America Corporation said it recorded the most patents filed and granted in the first half of any year in the company’s history, according to a Monday press release.
The U.S. Patent Office granted the bank 184 patents during the first half of this year, a 20 percent increase the prior year. Almost half of the patents are related to artificial intelligence, machine learning or information security, the release notes.
Bank of America has applied for 415 patents so far this year, a company record. The applications mainly revolve around banking innovations, including money transfer, check verification using augmented reality and cardless and device-less authentication.
“These numbers demonstrate our unmatched commitment to innovation,” said Cathy Bessant, Bank of America’s chief operations and technology officer. “Simply put, it is part of everyone’s job who works here. We do not have an innovation lab or an innovation team. It is in our DNA that every day we ask what we can do to improve our clients’ financial lives.”
What’s more, the records were achieved while more than 85 percent of the company’s employees work from home due to the global coronavirus pandemic.
Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. bank by assets, holds 4,277 patents granted or applied for in its portfolio, created by more than 5,600 investors in the U.S. and 12 countries. Of those inventors, 26 percent are women, double the average for other companies globally and in the U.S.
The release is available here.
This story is from the North Carolina Business News Wire, a service of UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Media and Journalism
