Numbers out of Bank of America revealed the megabank's mobile services are replacing branching for more and more consumers.

In an earnings call on Wednesday, CEO Brian Moynihan said the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank giant has invested a half-billion dollars in mobile banking in the past three or four years.

In fact, some 9% of its deposited checks from consumers now come through mobile remote deposit apps on smartphones and tablets, the company said, even though mobile RDC didn't really get underway there until the third quarter of 2012.

Meanwhile, executives at the nation's second largest bank said its number of branches would shrink to about 5,000 or a little less by the end of the year, down from 5,243 last quarter. That trend is reflected in an analyst report late last year that the banking industry nationwide shut down 390 branches in the same quarter.

Even though the bank says its ranks of mobile customers grew from 12 million a year ago to 14.4 million now, it hardly is giving up on face-to-face service. Moynihan said the bank would continue to invest heavily in both its online and physical presence.

“We have about 8 million customer visits a week. Our branches do remain a critical component of everything we do,” Moynihan said in the earnings call.