Bank of America unveils app upgrades as lenders fight to become one-stop shops for money

When Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch a decade ago, the idea was to meld a vast retail bank with a leading wealth-management brokerage.

That concept is taking a step forward with a series of improvements Bank of America is rolling out Thursday that make it easier for some of the company's nearly 26 million mobile users to move between banking and investing activities, according to executives.

For instance, users of the banking app can jump quickly to the Merrill Lynch app when they want detailed trade information, a move that takes one tap rather than opening up and logging into the Merrill app. The firm also rolled out a new dashboard that shows users in one place how they are racking up points, cash rewards and discounts across various banking, credit-card and brokerage products and a new cash flow analysis tool that spans banking and investing.

"This latest update will allow our wealth management clients who use mobile apps instant, one-touch access to both banking and investment services," said Andy Sieg, head of the bank's Merrill Lynch wealth management division. It allows clients to "view their banking and financial assets and activities in one place and to manage the full range of day-to-day transactions with extraordinary ease."

Bank of America, the second biggest U.S. lender by assets, hopes that by more tightly integrating its banking and investing products, users are more likely to remain within a bundled ecosystem of financial services. All the big banks are fighting to become one-stop shops for anything to do with money, from banking to investing to payments including credit cards and peer-to-peer remittances.

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