BofA is ready to compete with Walmart fintech, other tech startups, CEO says

Bank of America Corp. is confident in its growth prospects even as competition intensifies from fintechs including Walmart Inc.’s startup.

“I respect every competitor, I don’t fear any competitor,” Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan said in an interview Monday on Bloomberg Television. “We study all competitor moves, whether it’s the fintech disruptors or major players.”

Walmart lured a pair of senior bankers last month from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to run its fledgling financial-technology operation. The move struck fear on Wall Street, which has been urging regulators to halt efforts by retailers and startups to offer core banking products to millions of consumers.

Bank of America has an advantage because of its scale, Moynihan said, citing the company’s 40 million digital customers.

“What makes us unique is we serve all segments of clients,” from mass-market consumers to wealthy individuals and large businesses, he said.

Earlier this month, rival bank CEO Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase & Co. said the company is prepared for intensifying competition.

Here are other takeaways from Moynihan’s interview:

-Consumer spending and credit-card use are rebounding strongly, he said, adding that April data will probably show “massive” growth compared with 2020, when strict lockdowns were imposed during the pandemic.

-On the potential for the economy to overheat: “There are people concerned in the market -- we all have that concern, because inflation is tough to fight if it gets embedded in there. But there’s a lot of temporary factors.”

-On 10-year Treasury yields: “The reason that it’s going up is because people are seeing the economy recover from the health-care crisis,” Moynihan said. “As the economy normalizes and the growth rate comes up and we get above 2%, you’ll see a little higher rate, but it’ll still be, in the grand scheme of things, one of the lowest rates we’ve seen in a long, long time.”

Written by Lananh Nguyen and David Westin.