The bank is teaming with MIT's Media Lab research unit to establish the new centre, which will be located on the MIT campus, and will commit $3-5 million annually to the five year collaboration.

Bank of America says the new centre will serve as an "innovation engine that will seek to transform the ways banking will be conducted in a world of rapidly changing social, economic, and information landscapes".

Staff at the centre will explore ideas in banking by inventing technologies that reveal and use insights across a wide range of physical and social scales, from one-on-one customer interactions to global transactions.

Researchers will explore issues such as the use of social networks and mobile platforms for banking and the evolution of banking to encompass both physical and virtual worlds.

Commenting on the initiative, Anne Finucane, chief marketing officer, Bank of America, says: "Working with the MIT Media Lab provides a unique opportunity to grow banking in innovative ways that respond to evolving customer behaviour, preferences and trends."

"We are bringing together the creative, multidisciplinary research of Media Lab faculty and students with the real-world business experience and deep-domain knowledge of our Bank of America colleagues-all in a highly innovative environment that promotes unconventional thinking and risk-taking," adds Frank Moss, director of the MIT Media Lab. "In doing so, we hope not only to discover the principles that will transform banking in the next decade, but also to advance our basic understanding of the rapidly changing relationship between people, technology and society in the twenty-first century."

Last year JPMorgan Chase said it would invest $30 million over ten years in a partnership with Syracuse University to create a financial technology and infrastructure curriculum and training programme.

The agreement included plans for the establishment of a technology centre on the Syracuse University campus as well as scholarships and internships for students.