Bank of America awarded technology patent

Bank of America Corp. has received a patent for technology it will market to its corporate clients.

The technology, dubbed Active Card Control, allows Bank of America customers to manage funds on corporate purchasing cards in real time, which the bank says reduces the risk of theft and enables customers to gain control over employee expenditures.

The technology allows customers to reset the available funds on each card through a Web-based tool. Cards have no available funds until the client is ready to pay a supplier. The customer then submits an electronic purchase request to BofA, which funds individual cards with the exact amount to be paid.

When those purchases are billed to the card, the available funds go to zero.

Active Card Control is an extension of the bank's commercial-card product suite.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) operates more than 6,100 retail banking offices and some 19,000 ATMs in the United States.