"We wanted our app to be as robust as possible since nearly 35 percent of those who take advantage of mobile banking manage their finances exclusively through their apps," said Alejandro Carriles, director of self-service channels at BBVA Compass. "Innovative and fun features like this allow us to improve and simplify those customers' experiences."

Picture Bill Pay captures the payee and payment details from the paper bill and automatically populates those fields in the BBVA Compass bill pay service for customer verification and scheduling. The new feature eliminates the need to manually type information to add payees and also cuts back on the likelihood of making a mistake when entering the details, Carriles said.

BBVA Compass is one of the first banks to offer picture bill pay capabilities using Mitek System's Mobile Photo Bill Pay. Carriles said it adds to the bank's suite of services for customers who want to manage their finances in whatever way and wherever they prefer, and he expects it to help attract more.

"Say someone wants to switch to BBVA Compass but they're reluctant to make the move because they don't want to reenter their bill payment or payee details," said Carriles. "This new feature takes the hassle out of switching to us."

The bank's mobile banking app, introduced in 2009 and available across mobile platforms, allows customers to retrieve balances, review transactions, transfer funds, deposit checks and manage bill payments. The free app also offers bilingual banking options.

BBVA Compass expects to introduce Picture Bill Pay on the Android platform later this summer.