The coronavirus pandemic brought the world economy down drastically due to the lockdowns imposed in nations across the globe. It has been more than a year and a half since efforts are being made to get the economy working again. Bank of America CEO, Brian Moynihan on June 14, 2021 said that the American consumers have started to spend more freely as the economy is slowly getting back to pre-pandemic levels. Thanks to the vaccination drives and measures taken by the government.

It was further informed that the transaction volumes on the debit and credit cards on the Zelle payment network has increased by 20 percent compared to the same point in 2019. The year 2020 was the worst in terms of consumer spending due to the onset of the pandemic and the stay-at-home orders. Moynihan while talking to a leading daily added that the unemployment rate has also gone down and people have also started to go to the amusement parks, eateries, go on nearby trips and more.

The stimulus bill by President Joe Biden was passed by the lawmakers and the total amount of the COVID-19 aid reached $5trillion. This helped to avoid the wave of the defaults by the borrowers at mortgages, credit cards and auto loans which was expected at the beginning of the pandemic. It has also been noticed that most of the spending categories have recovered except for travel, which continues to remain 15 percent lower than in 2019. After JPMorgan Chase, the Bank of America stands as the second largest US bank in terms of assets.

Moynihan added that schemes like unemployment benefits and stimulus checks had helped with the consumer spending as well. The accounts that had an average balance of $1000 to $2000 are all up by 6 to 7 times what they were before the pandemic began. The consumers are spending the money as per their convenience.

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