Silvergate Bank, based in University Towne Center and with about $600 million in assets, launched a mobile banking application that gives customers instant access to their accounts and the ability to make deposits via smartphones and wireless devices.

Using their iPhone or Android devices customers can perform many banking functions, including checking account balances and recent transactions, transferring funds between accounts, and making check deposits through the mobile feature by taking photos of both sides of a check.

CEO Alan Lane said the bank made a “substantial investment in Internet technology” for the mobile app services, but declined to disclose the amount.

In other bank news, Lane said a $5 million dividend payment the bank made in the third quarter to the parent, Silvergate Capital Corp., was used to retire part of its $12.4 million debt incurred from the U.S. Treasury Department through a Small Business Lending program.

The Business Journal is the premier business publication in San Diego. Every day online and each Monday in print, the Business Journal reports on how local business operate and why businesses leaders make the decisions they do. Every story is a dose of insight into how to run a better, more efficient, more profitable business.