BofA CEO: Americans Spending, Saving More

American consumers are spending more money, but also saving more, the CEO of Bank of America said Wednesday (Feb. 16).

Speaking to CNBC’s Jim Cramer, Brian Moynihan said spending on his bank’s cards has risen as much as 20% from the start of 2021.

“When you look at the core spending levels of consumers, they continue to be very strong,” Moynihan said. “January’s up nearly 15 to 20%…we’re seeing that continue into February.”

He added that concerns that consumer bank balances would fall once federal COVID-19 stimulus checks stopped coming have yet to materialize. On the contrary, Bank of America has seen balance grow over the last half year.

“The second thing is that consumers have more money in their account,” Moynihan told Cramer. “So in the month of January their accounts grew again, especially for consumers that carry lower balances.”

Read more: Dept Stores, eCommerce Lead Surprise 3.8% Bounce in January Retail Sales

The CEO’s comments came the same day that the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that retail sales had seen their biggest gain in 10 months in January, recovering 3.8% after a sharp — and revised lower — 2.5% decline in December.

The retail rebound was fueled by a 14.5% increase in eCommerce, along with by a 9.2% increase at department stores, a 7.2% growth in furniture and home furnishing sales, and a 4.1% month-over-month jump in building materials and gardening equipment.

Read more: ‘Record’ Digital Engagement Fuels BoA’s $32B 2021

The CNBC interview also touched on Bank of America’s technology investments. As of last month, the bank had 16 million active Zelle users. Last year, for the first time, Zelle transactions outnumbered paper checks.

As PYMNTS reported at the time, Zeller users sent and received 218 million transfers last year, a 39% and 53% increase, respectively, year over year.

The high Zelle usage was part of what Bank of America termed “record” digital engagement last year, with 70% of households actively using its digital platforms, along with 41.4 million active digital banking users – a 5% increase – making 2.7 billion logins.