Bank of America Consumer Payments Up 17% in January to $335B

Bank of America’s 67 million consumer clients made $335 billion in total payments in January, up 17% from January 2021 and the second-highest month of spending on record, according to a Monday (Feb. 7) press release.

BofA consumers made a record $3.8 trillion in payments during 2021, up 24% from 2019, marking a record four straight quarters of payments of more than $1 trillion. The 2021 total was highlighted by record spending during the holiday shopping season in November and December.

“Bank of America consumer clients continued their strong payment trends in January, following record levels in 2021,” Bank of America Head of Consumer and Small Business Products Mary Hines Droesch said in the announcement.

“Our clients’ checking and savings deposit balances were also up 15% year-over-year, growing across all levels of affluence,” she said. “These trends bode well for the economy as we move further in 2022.”

Aggregate credit and debit card spending for Bank of America customers hit $65 billion in January, a 16% jump from the same time a year earlier. Credit card spending was up 28% year-over-year with spending on travel, retail and food all up from 2021 levels after a dip from 2020 to 2021.

Overall travel spending was up 120% from 2021 to 2022, while air travel jumped even higher with a 160% increase January to January. Hotel and home sharing saw a 75% increase in spending from one year to the next, per the release.

Baby boomers led hotel spending, while Gen Z and millennial consumers topped the spending on home sharing.

Related: Bank of America Says US CBDC ‘Inevitable’

Meanwhile, Bank of America sees a digital currency for the U.S. is “inevitable,” saying it might happen between 2025 to 2030.

Analysts “expect stablecoin adoption and use for payments to increase significantly over the next several years as financial institutions explore digital asset custody and trading solutions and as payments companies incorporate blockchain technology into their platforms” with no U.S. CBDC in place.

PYMNTS wrote recently that the Biden administration might also be close to a statement on a full strategy regarding crypto, with a possible executive order that would include an “extensive” government strategy on the digital coins.