Wyomissing, Pennsylvania-based Customers Bancorp plans to launch a virtual bank built on a mobile banking platform. The company has bought the rights to the domain "BankMobile.com" and plans to launch its platform in the third quarter of 2014.

Customers Bancorp provides personal and SME business banking services in a number of Eastern states, through its subsidiary Customers Bank.

"We see a tremendous opportunity for a bank to provide simple and user-friendly banking services to consumers and small to medium-size businesses that charge no hidden fees whatsoever," Jay S. Sidhu, Customers Bank’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement. "Our research indicates that over 50 percent of households in the U.S. have not visited a bank branch over the past year. In addition, about 25 percent of the U.S. population is unbanked or under-banked."

The mobile bank planned by Customers Bancorp will compete with Simple, a Portland, Oregon-based virtual-only bank. Simple offers a Visa Card that is tied to an FDIC-insured account with "no surprise fees." It also offers iOS and Android apps, and savings tools. Since its launch at the end of 2012, Simple has acquired 100,000 customers.

In February 2014, Spain's BBVA acquired Simple with the aim of developing new products and services and expanding its reach into new markets beyond the U.S.

Forrester Research senior analyst Denée Carrington told Mobile Payments Today that banks such as Simple are true disrupters, because they can set up mobile-only banking services for less cost than traditional banks.