Digital adoption continues to rise at Scotiabank, with active mobile users increasing 13% year over year and the percentage of self-serve transactions increasing to 91%, up from 89% YoY.

“Our digital metrics in the Pacific Alliance continue to track at a strong pace as we capitalize on the behaviors of the younger demographic, embracing digital-first approach to banking,” Scotiabank President and CEO Brian Porter said last week during the bank’s first-quarter earnings call. “These strong trends clearly validate our initiatives to accelerate our customer experience-driven digital-first model and improve efficiencies in our international business.”

Overall digital adoption at the $976 billion bank in Q1 was 56%, up from 51% a year ago. Digital sales increased to 46% in Q1, up from 43% in Q1 2021. Scotiabank reported Q1 earnings of $2.1 billion, a 14% YoY increase.

The earnings call also highlighted the bank’s cloud-based wealth management tool, Scotia Smart Investor, which was built with enterprise financial technology firm SigFig.

Adjusted expenses were up 2% YoY, related to growth in performance and share-based compensation as well as technology and advertising spend. Technology spend was $365.1 million for Q1, up 5% YoY but down 2% from the fourth quarter.

Shares of Scotiabank [NYSE: BNS] were trading at $71.93 at from market close, down 1.82% from market open.

Bank of Montreal credits personalized digital services for driving business banking balances up 15%

The $802 billion Bank of Montreal credits its BMO Business Express onboarding platform with reducing onboarding time to minutes from days and helping to drive business banking balances up by 15% from the previous year.

“We are continuously modernizing technology, building advanced capabilities, and leveraging data and analytics to enhance the customer and employee experience,” BMO CEO Darryl White said during last week’s first-quarter earnings call. “One great example that brings this to life is BMO Business Express, our industry-leading business onboarding platform, which has exceeded $2 billion in authorizations supporting over 33,000 businesses with rapid access to capital.”

BMO Business Express is a single-system architecture that supports the business customers on both sides of the U.S. and Canada border, White said, adding that personalized digital services “drive above-market growth with business banking balances up 15% and create efficiency, freeing up valuable time for our colleagues to provide one-on-one financial advice.”

BMO is also engaged in cloud modernization to increase scalability and security, he said.

“For example, we have recently migrated our transportation finance business to the AWS cloud, leading to annual cost savings of $10 million and enabling profound changes in how our business operates, competes and creates value for our customers,” White said.

BMO’s net income was $2 billion, up from $1.6 billion in Q1 2021. Non-interest expense in Q1 increased 9% YoY to $802 million, reflecting higher sales force and technology costs. BMO did not break out its expenses so there are no specific figures available for technology costs.

Shares of BMO [NYSE: BMO] were trading at $111.08 as of market close., down 3.33% from market open.