Mobile banking apps are growing up from “check account balance” to “get shopping deals.”

Regions Bank’s mobile banking app will soon have cash-back rewards functionality, Bank Innovation has learned. The Birmingham, Ala.-based bank is expected to layer in the technology some time during the second quarter of this year, Tom Brooks, head of Regions Cards and Payments Division, tells Bank Innovation.

The program, which is already a part of Region’s online banking, lets customers earn cash back on Regions Visa CheckCard purchases when they are shopping at participating merchants. The offers made to customers are tied to their card transactions and the rewards are automatically deposited into their accounts within 60 days of a transaction.

The mobile app functionality to hit soon will help customers identity the merchant offers available to them on their smartphones, Brooks says.

Regions has offered online banking customers cash-back rewards since September of 2010 thanks to a partnership with Cardlytics.

The new mobile feature is part of a larger innovation strategy at Regions. In innovating any product or service, the key is “creating the right customer experience and making sure to provide value to customers,” Brooks says. “Make the [program] as seamless as possible and everything else will come from that.”

We will have an entire session dedicated to the interconnection between banking and commerce during our upcoming Bank Innovation 2012 event.