Former
Bank of America NT&SA (and its parent,
BankAmerica Corporation) ( ), founded and
originally headquartered in San Francisco, California , is now
headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, following the 1998
takeover by the North Carolina-based former
NationsBank. The resulting merged bank is now
known as
Bank of America, NA (and its parent,
Bank of America Corporation.) The 2008 takeover of
Merrill Lynch completed the
transformation of this bank comprehensively to being the number one
bank in the United States.
Quick Summary, 2008/2009 (TARP era)
Based in
Charlotte, North
Carolina
, Bank of America is one of the largest financial services companies, largest
bank by assets, largest commercial bank by
deposits and is the second largest by market capitalization in the United States
. The company holds 12.2% of all U.S.
deposits. Also, Bank of America is the number one underwriter of
global high yield debt, the third largest underwriter of global
equity and the ninth largest adviser on global mergers and
acquisitions.
Bank of America serves clients in more than 150 countries and has a
relationship with 99 percent of the U.S. Fortune 500 companies and
83 percent of the Fortune Global 500. The company is a component of
the
Dow Jones Industrial
Average (DJIA) and a member of the
Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC).
At one point considered one of the winners and healthiest survivors
of the 2007 credit crisis, plunged in market value due in part to
massive losses caused by its purchase of
Merrill Lynch. Its Q1 2009 profit was 4.2
billion with 3.7 billion having come from Merrill Lynch. As of
September 2009, the total value of B of A's
Mortgage and Asset Backed
Securities is one of the highest in the banking industry at
$264 Billion.
Bank of America is one of the
Big
Four Banks of the United States with
Citigroup,
JP Morgan
Chase and
Wells Fargo.It is
currently working with
Italic textWells Fargo.
Corporate history
Bank of Italy

Typical Bank of America local
office
The
Bank of Italy was founded in
San
Francisco
by Amadeo Giannini in 1904, based on catering
to immigrants. Amadeo was raised by the Fava/Stanghellini
family when his father was shot while trying to collect on a $10.00
debt. When the
1906 San
Francisco earthquake struck, Giannini was able to get all of
the deposits out of the bank building and away from the fires.
Because San Francisco's banks were in smoldering ruins and unable
to open their vaults, Giannini was able to use the rescued funds to
start lending within a few days of the disaster. From a makeshift
desk of a few planks over two barrels, he lent money to anyone who
was willing to rebuild. He took great pride in later years that all
of these loans were repaid.
In 1922, Giannini established
Bank of America and
Italy in Italy by buying Banca dell'Italia Meridionale, itself
only established in 1918.
March 7, 1927, Mr. Giannini consolidated his Bank of Italy (101
branches) with the then newly formed Liberty Bank of America (175
branches). The result was the Bank of Italy National Trust &
Savings Association with capital of $30,000,000, resources of
$115,000,000.
In 1928, A. P. Giannini merged with Bank of America Los Angeles and
consolidated it with his other bank holdings to create what would
become the largest banking institution in the country. He renamed
his Bank of Italy November 3, 1930, calling it Bank of America. The
merger was completed in early 1929 and took the name
Bank
of America. The combined company was headed by Giannini
with Monnette serving as co-Chair.
Growth in California
Giannini sought to build a national bank, expanding into most of
the western states as well as into the insurance industry, under
the aegis of his holding company,
Transamerica Corporation. In 1953,
regulators succeeded in forcing the separation of
Transamerica Corporation and Bank
of America under the
Clayton
Antitrust Act. The passage of the
Bank Holding Company Act of
1956 prohibited banks from owning
non-banking subsidiaries such as
insurance companies. Bank of America and Transamerica were
separated, with the latter company continuing in the insurance
business. However, federal banking regulators prohibited Bank of
America's interstate banking activity, and Bank of America's
domestic banks outside California were forced into a separate
company that eventually became
First Interstate Bancorp, which was
acquired by
Wells Fargo and
Company in 1996. It was not until the 1980s with a change in
federal banking legislation and regulation that Bank of America was
again able to expand its domestic consumer banking activity outside
California.
New technologies also allowed
credit
cards to be linked directly to individual bank accounts. In
1958, the bank introduced the
BankAmericard, which changed its name to
VISA in 1975.
A consortium of other
California
banks came up with Master Charge (now MasterCard) to compete with
BankAmericard.'
Expansion outside California
Following the passage of the
Bank Holding Company Act of
1967,
BankAmerica Corporation was established
for the purpose of owning Bank of America and its
subsidiaries.
BankAmerica expanded outside California in
1983 with its acquisition of Seafirst Corporation of Seattle
, Washington
, and its wholly owned banking subsidiary,
Seattle-First National Bank. Seafirst was at risk of seizure
by the federal government after becoming insolvent due to a series
of bad loans to the
oil industry.
BankAmerica continued to operate its new subsidiary as Seafirst
rather than Bank of America until the 1998 merger with
NationsBank.
BankAmerica was dealt huge losses in 1986 and 1987 by the placement
of a series of bad loans in the
Third
World, particularly in
Latin
America. The company fired its
CEO, Sam Armacost. Though Armacost
blamed the problems on his predecessor,
A.W. Clausen, Clausen was appointed to replace
Armacost. The losses resulted in a huge decline of BankAmerica
stock, making it vulnerable to a hostile
takeover.
First
Interstate Bancorp of Los Angeles (which had originated from
banks once owned by BankAmerica), launched such a bid in the fall
of 1986, although BankAmerica rebuffed it, mostly by selling
operations. It sold its FinanceAmerica subsidiary to
Chrysler and the brokerage firm
Charles Schwab and Co. back to
Mr. Schwab. It also sold Bank of
America and Italy to
Deutsche Bank. By
the time of the
1987 stock market
crash, BankAmerica's share price had fallen to $8, but by 1992
it had rebounded mightily to become one of the biggest gainers of
that half-decade.
BankAmerica's next big acquisition came in 1992.
The company acquired
its California rival, Security Pacific Corporation and its
subsidiary Security Pacific
National Bank in California and other banks in Arizona
, Idaho
, Oregon
, and
Washington
(which Security Pacific had acquired in a series of
acquisitions in the late 1980s). This was, at the time, the
largest bank acquisition in history. Federal regulators, however,
forced the sale of roughly half of Security Pacific's Washington
subsidiary, the former
Rainier Bank, as
the combination of Seafirst and Security Pacific Washington would
have given BankAmerica too large a share of the market in that
state. The Washington branches were divided and sold off to West
One Bancorp (now
U.S. Bancorp) and
KeyBank.
Later that year, BankAmerica expanded into Nevada by acquiring
Valley Bank of Nevada.
In 1994,
BankAmerica acquired the Continental
Illinois National Bank and Trust Co. of Chicago
, which had become federally owned as part of the
same oil industry debacle emanating from Oklahoma City's Penn
Square Bank, that had brought down numerous financial institutions
including Seafirst. At the time, no bank had the resources
to bail out Continental, so the federal government operated the
bank for nearly a decade.
Illinois
at that time regulated branch banking extremely
heavily, so Bank of America Illinois was a single-unit bank until
the 21st century. BankAmerica moved its national lending
department to Chicago
in an effort to establish a financial beachhead in
the region.
These mergers helped BankAmerica Corporation to once again become
the largest U.S. bank holding company in terms of deposits, but the
company fell to second place in 1997 behind fast-growing
NationsBank Corporation, and to
third in 1998 behind North Carolina's
First
Union Corp.
Merger of NationsBank and BankAmerica
In 1997, BankAmerica lent
D. E. Shaw & Companyy., a large
hedge fund, $1.4bn so that the hedge fund
would run various businesses for the bank. However, D.E. Shaw
suffered significant loss after the
1998 Russia bond default.
BankAmerica was acquired by NationsBank later that year in
October.
The purchase of BankAmerica Corp. by the
NationsBank Corporation was the largest bank
acquisition in history at that time. While the deal was technically
a purchase of BankAmerica Corporation by NationsBank, the deal was
structured as merger with NationsBank renamed to
Bank of
America Corporation, and Bank of America NT&SA
changing its name to
Bank of America, N.A. as the
remaining legal bank entity. The bank still operates under Federal
Charter 13044, which was granted to Giannini's Bank of Italy on
March 1, 1927. However, SEC filings before 1998 are listed under
NationsBank, not BankAmerica.
Following the US$64.8 billion acquisition of BankAmerica by
NationsBank, the resulting Bank of America had combined assets of
US$570 billion, as well as 4,800 branches in 22
states.
Despite the mammoth size of the two
companies, federal regulators insisted only upon the divestiture of
13 branches in New
Mexico
, in towns that would be left with only a single
bank following the combination. This is because branch
divestitures are only required if the combined company will have a
larger than 25 percent
FDIC deposit market share in a particular
state or 10 percent deposit market share overall.
History since 2001
In 2001, Bank of America
CEO and chairman
Hugh McColl stepped down and named
Ken Lewis as his successor.
Lewis's greater focus on financial discipline and efficiency
contrasted greatly with the expansionary mergers and acquisition
strategy of his predecessor.
Acquisition of FleetBoston Financial
In 2004, Bank of America announced it would purchase Boston-based
bank
FleetBoston Financial for
$47 billion in cash and stock. By merging with Bank of America, all
of its banks and branches were given the Bank of America logo. At
the time of merger, FleetBoston was the seventh largest bank in
United States with $197 billion in assets, over 20 million
customers and revenue of $12 billion.
Purchase of MBNA
On 30 June 2005, Bank of America announced it would purchase
credit card giant
MBNA for $35 billion in cash and stock. The
Federal Reserve Board gave final
approval to the merger on 15 December 2005, and the merger closed
on 1 January 2006. The acquisition of MBNA provided Bank of America
a leading credit card issuer at home and abroad. The combined Bank
of America Card Services organization, including the former MBNA,
had more than 40 million U.S. accounts and nearly $140 billion in
outstanding balances. Under Bank of America the operation was
renamed
FIA Card Services.
Divestiture of operations in Brazil, Chile and Uruguay
In May
2006, Bank of America and Banco Itaú
(Investimentos Itaú S.A.) entered into an acquisition agreement
through which Itaú agreed to acquire BankBoston's operations in
Brazil and was granted an exclusive right to purchase Bank of
America's operations in Chile
and Uruguay
. A deal was signed in August 2006 under
which Itaú agreed to purchase Bank of America's operations in Chile
and Uruguay. Prior to the transaction, BankBoston's Brazilian
operations included asset management, private banking, a credit
card portfolio, and small, middle-market, and large corporate
segments. It had 66 branches and 203,000 clients in Brazil.
BankBoston in Chile had 44 branches and 58,000 clients and in
Uruguay it had 15 branches. In addition, there was a credit card
company, OCA, in Uruguay, which had 23 branches. BankBoston N.A. in
Uruguay, together with OCA, jointly served 372,000 clients. While
the BankBoston name and trademarks were not part of the
transaction, as part of the sale agreement, they cannot be used by
Bank of America in Brazil, Chile or Uruguay following the
transactions. Hence, the BankBoston name has disappeared from
Brazil, Chile and Uruguay. The Itaú stock received by Bank of
America in the transactions has allowed Bank of America's stake in
Itaú to reach 11.51%. Banco de Boston de Brazil had been founded in
1947.
Purchase of US Trust
On 20 November 2006, Bank of America announced the purchase of
The United States Trust
Company for $3.3 billion, from the
Charles Schwab Corporation. US
Trust had about $100 billion of
assets under management and over 150
years of experience. The deal closed 1 July 2007.
Acquisition of LaSalle Bank
On September 14, 2007, Bank of America won approval from the
Federal Reserve to acquire
LaSalle Bank Corporation from
Netherlands's
ABN AMRO for $21 billion.
With this combination Bank of America will have 1.7 trillion in
assets.
A
Dutch
court
blocked the sale until it was later approved in July. The
acquisition was completed on October 1, 2007.
The deal
increased Bank of America's presence in Illinois
, Michigan
, and Indiana
by 411 branches, 17,000 commercial bank clients,
1.4 million retail customers, and 1,500 ATMs. Bank of America has
become the largest bank in the Chicago
market with 197 offices and 14% of the deposit
share, passing up JPMorgan
Chase.
LaSalle Bank and
LaSalle Bank Midwest branches adopted
the Bank of America name on 5 May 2008.
Acquisition of Countrywide Financial
On August 23, 2007 the company announced a $2 billion
repurchase agreement for
Countrywide Financial. This purchase
of
preferred stock was arranged to
provide a
return on investment
of 7.25%
per annum and provided the option
to purchase
common stock at a price of
$18 per share.
Following that initial investment, on January 11, 2008, Bank of
America announced that they would buy Countrywide Financial for
$4.1 billion.This acquisition, which closed on July 1, 2008, gave
the bank a substantial market share of the mortgage business, and
access to Countrywide's expertise, technology, and employees for
servicing mortgages.The acquisition was seen as preventing the
potential of
bankruptcy for Countrywide.
Countrywide, however, denied that it was close to bankruptcy.
Countrywide provides mortgage servicing for nine million mortgages
valued at $1.4 trillion
USD as
of December 31, 2007.However, Countrywide is under FBI
investigation due to possible fraud in home loans and mortgages,
therefore Bank of America states that by 2009 they will only be
"officially" affiliated to Countrywide.
On July 1, 2008, Bank of America Corporation completed its purchase
of Countrywide Financial Corporation. This purchase made it the
USA's leading mortgage originator and servicer, controlling between
20 to 25 percent of the home loan market. The deal was structured
to merge Countrywide with the Red Oak Merger Corporation, which
Bank of America created as an independent subsidiary. It has been
suggested that the deal was structured this way to prevent a
potential bankruptcy stemming from large losses in Countrywide
hurting the parent organization by keeping Countrywide
bankruptcy remote. To change the brand's
business culture, Countrywide Financial has now become
Bank of America Home Loans.
Acquisition of Merrill Lynch
On September 15, 2008, Bank of America announced its intentions to
purchase
Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.
in an all-stock deal worth approximately $50 billion, about 86% of
the Bank of America stock price at close. Merrill Lynch was at the
time within days of collapse, and the acquisition effectively saved
Merrill from
bankruptcy. Around the same
time Bank of America was reportedly also in talks to purchase
Lehman Brothers, however a lack of
government guarantees caused the bank to abandon talks with Lehman.
Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy the same day Bank of America
announced its plans to acquire Merrill Lynch. This acquisition made
Bank of America the largest
financial
services company in the world.
Temasek Holdings, the largest shareholder
of
Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.,
briefly became one of the largest shareholders of Bank of America,,
with a 3% stake.
However, taking a loss Reuters estimated at
$3Bn, the Singapore
sovereign wealth
fund sold its whole stake in BofA in 1st q., 2009.
Shareholders of both companies approved the acquisition on December
5, 2008, and the deal closed January 1, 2009. BofA had planned to
retain various members of Thain's management team after the merger.
However, after Thain was removed from his position, most of his
allies left. The departure of
Nelson
Chai, who had been named Asia-Pacific president, left just one
of Thain's hires in place, Tom Montag as head of sales and
trading.
The Bank, in its January 16, 2009 earnings release, revealed
massive losses at Merrill Lynch in the fourth quarter, which
necessitated an emergency government bailout of the Bank to keep it
solvent. Merrill recorded an operating loss of $21.5 billion in the
quarter, mainly in its sales and trading operations, led by Tom
Montag. The Bank also disclosed it tried to abandon the deal in
December after the extent of Merrill's trading losses surfaced, but
was compelled to complete the merger by the U.S. government. The
Bank's stock price sank to $7.18, its lowest level in 17 years,
after announcing earnings and the Merrill mishap. The market
capitalization of Bank of America, including Merrill Lynch, was
then $45 billion, less than the $50 billion it offered for Merrill
just four months earlier, and down $108 billion from the merger
announcement.
Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis testified before Congress that he
had some misgivings about the acquisition of Merrill Lynch, and
that federal officials pressured him to proceed with the deal or
face losing his job and endangering the bank's relationship with
federal regulators.
Lewis' statement is backed up in internal emails subpoenaed by
Republican lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee. In one of
the emails, Richmond Federal Reserve President
Jeffrey Lacker threatened that if the
acquisition did not go through, and later Bank of America were
forced to request federal assistance, the management of Bank of
America would be "gone".
Other emails, read by Congressman Dennis Kucinich during the course
of Lewis' testimony, state that Mr. Lewis had foreseen the outrage
from his shareholders that the purchase of Merrill would cause, and
asked government regulators to issue a letter stating that the
government had ordered him to complete the deal to acquire Merrill.
Lewis, for his part, states he doesn't recall requesting such a
letter.
Bonus issues: Settlement agreed but rejected by judge
On August 3, 2009, BofA agreed to pay a $33 million fine, without
admission or denial of charges, to the
U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) over the non-disclosure of an agreement to pay
up to $5.8 billion of bonuses at Merrill. BofA approved the bonuses
before the merger but did not disclose them to its shareholders
when the shareholders were considering approving the Merrill
acquisition, in December 2008.
The issue was originally investigated by
New York
State
Attorney General
Andrew Cuomo, who commented after the
suit and announced settlement that "the timing of the bonuses, as
well as the disclosures relating to them, constituted a 'surprising
fit of corporate irresponsibility'" and "our investigation of these
and other matters pursuant to New York’s Martin Act will continue." Kucinich
commented at the same time that "This may not be the last fine that
Bank of America pays for how it handled its merger of Merrill
Lynch." A federal judge,
Jed Rakoff, in
an unusual action, refused to approve the settlement on August 5.A
first hearing before the judge on August 10 was at times heated,
and he was "sharply critic[al]" of the bonuses. David Rosenfeld
represented the SEC, and Lewis J. Liman, son of
Arthur L. Liman, represented BofA. The actual amount
of bonuses paid was $3.6 billion, of which $850 million was
"guaranteed" and the rest was shared amongst 39,000 workers who
received average payments of $91,000; 696 people received more than
$1 million in bonuses; at least one person received a more than $33
million bonus.
On September 14, the judge rejected the settlement and told the
parties to prepare for trial to begin no later than February 1,
2010. "The judge focused much of his criticism on the fact that the
fine in the case would be paid by the bank’s shareholders, who were
the ones that were supposed to have been injured by the lack of
disclosure. 'It is quite something else for the very management
that is accused of having lied to its shareholders to determine how
much of those victims’ money should be used to make the case
against the management go away,' the judge wrote. ... The proposed
settlement, the judge continued, 'suggests a rather cynical
relationship between the parties: the S.E.C. gets to claim that it
is exposing wrongdoing on the part of the Bank of America in a
high-profile merger; the bank’s management gets to claim that they
have been coerced into an onerous settlement by overzealous
regulators. And all this is done at the expense, not only of the
shareholders, but also of the truth.'" Investigations also continue
in The House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform.
Federal bailout
Bank of America received US $20 billion in federal bailout from the
US government through the
Troubled Asset Relief Program
(TARP) on 16 January 2009 and also got guarantee of US $118 billion
in potential losses at the company. This was in addition to the $25
billion given to them in the Fall of 2008 through TARP. The
additional payment was part of a deal with the US government to
preserve Bank of America's merger with the troubled investment firm
Merrill Lynch. Since then, members of
the US Congress have expressed considerable concern about how this
money has been spent, especially since some of the recipients have
been accused of misusing the bailout money. The Bank's CEO,
Ken Lewis, was quoted as
claiming "We are still lending, and we are lending far more because
of the TARP program." Members of the US House of Representatives,
however, were skeptical and quoted many anecdotes about loan
applicants (particularly small business owners) being denied loans
and credit card holders facing stiffer terms on the debt in their
card accounts.
According to a March 15, 2009 article in
The New York Times, Bank of America
received an additional $5.2 billion in government bailout money,
channeled through
American
International Group.
As a result of its federal bailout and management problems,
The
Wall Street Journal reported that the Bank of America is
operating under a secret “memorandum of understanding” (MOU) from
the US government that requires it to ”overhaul its board and
address perceived problems with risk and liquidity management.”
With the federal action, the institution has taken several steps,
including arranging for six of its
directors to resign and
forming a Regulatory Impact Office. Bank of America faces several
deadlines in July and August and if not met, could face harsher
penalties by federal regulators. Bank of America did not respond to
The Wall Street Journal story.
Bank of America divisions

Bank of America ATM
Bank of America generates 90% of its revenues in its domestic
market and continues to buy businesses in the US. The core of Bank
of America's strategy is to be the number one bank in its domestic
market. It has achieved this through key acquisitions.
Consumer
Global Consumer and Small Business Banking (GC&SBB) is the
largest division in the company, and deals primarily with consumer
banking and credit card issuance. The acquisition of FleetBoston
and MBNA significantly expanded its size and range of services,
resulting in about 51% of the company's total revenue in 2005. It
competes directly with the
retail
banking divisions of
Citigroup and
JPMorgan Chase. The GC&SBB
organization includes over 6,100 retail branches and over 18,700
ATMs across the United States.
Bank of America is a member of the
Global ATM Alliance, a joint venture of
several major international banks that allows customers of the
banks to use their
ATM card
or
check card at another bank within the
Global ATM Alliance with no ATM access fees when traveling
internationally.
Other participating banks are Barclays (United Kingdom
), BNP Paribas (France
), China Construction Bank (China
), Deutsche Bank (Germany
), Santander Serfin (Mexico
), Scotiabank (Canada
) and
Westpac (Australia
and New
Zealand
). This feature is restricted to withdrawals
using a debit card, though credit card withdrawals are still
subject to cash advance fees and foreign currency conversion fees.
Additionally, some foreign ATMs use
Smart
Card technology and may not accept non-Smart Cards.
Bank of America offers
banking and
brokerage products as a result of the acquisition
of Merrill Lynch. Savings programs such as "Add it Up" and "Keep
the Change" have been well received and are a reflection of the
product development banks have taken during the 2008
recession.
Bank of America, N.A is a nationally chartered bank, regulated by
the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Department of the
Treasury.
Corporate
Global Corporate and Investment Banking (GCIB), also known as
Banc of America
Securities LLC, provides
mergers and acquisitions advisory,
underwriting, capital markets, as well
as sales & trading in fixed income and equities markets. Its
strongest groups include
Leveraged
Finance,
Syndicated Loans, and
mortgage-backed securities.
It also
has one of the largest research teams on Wall Street
. Bank of America Securities LLC is based in
New York
City
, with major offices also located in Charlotte
, Chicago
, San
Francisco
, Tokyo
, Frankfurt
, London
, and
Mumbai
. Ken
Lewis, the ambitious
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aMzHGkCEv2P0,
headlined
Brokers Disdain Toaster Salesmen in Bank America
deal, referring to the history of banks giving out various
bonuses, typically housekeeping items (stereotyped as toasters) to
customers opening new accounts, often merely transferred from
another bank that in turn, a year or so before had also given a
new-account incentive. The article, in a further putdown, also
calls Lewis a "onetime shoe salesman" although, later on, to be
fair, it clarifies this: (after his father died) "From about the
time he entered junior high school, he worked odd jobs, peddling
Christmas cards door-to-door and selling shoes to make a 36-cent
commission per pair." chief executive who masterminded the bank's
expansion into exotic new businesses including GCIB, bluntly ruled
out any further acquisitions in its investment banking division.
"I've had all of the fun I can stand in investment banking at the
moment," he told analysts.
Investment management
Global Wealth and Investment Management manages assets of
institutions and individuals. It is among the 10 largest U.S.
wealth managers (ranked by private banking assets under management
in accounts of $1 million or more as of June 30, 2005). In July
2006, Chairman
Ken Lewis
announced that GWIM's total assets under management exceeded $500
billion. GWIM has five primary lines of business: Premier Banking
& Investments (including Bank of America Investment Services,
Inc.), The Private Bank, Family Wealth Advisors,
Columbia Management Group, and
Bank of America Specialist.
Bank of America has recently spent $675 million building its US
investment banking business and is looking to become one of the top
five investment banks worldwide. "Bank of America already has
excellent relationships with the corporate and financial
institutions world. Its clients include 98% of the Fortune 500
companies in the US and 79% of the Global Fortune 500. These
relationships, as well as a balance sheet that most banks would
kill for, are the foundations for a lofty ambition."
Bank of
America is currently constructing a massive new
headquarters
for its New York City operations.
The
skyscaper will be located on 42nd Street
and Avenue of the Americas
, at Bryant
Park
, and will feature state
of the art, environmentally-friendly technology throughout its
1.2 million square feet (111,484 m²) of office space. The
building will be the headquarters for the company's investment
banking division, and will also host most of Bank of America's New
York-based staff.
International operations
In 2005, Bank of America acquired a 9% stake in
China Construction Bank, China's
second largest bank, for $3 billion. It represented the company's
largest foray into China's growing banking sector.
Bank of America
currently has offices in Hong Kong
, Shanghai, and Guangzhou
and is looking to greatly expand its Chinese
business as a result of this deal. In 2008 Bank of America
was awarded Deal of the Year - Project Finance Deal of the Year at
the
2008 ALB Hong Kong Law Awards.
Bank of America has invested in India as an emerging market.
Currently, Bank of America maintains
branches in Mumbai
, Chennai
, Calcutta
, New
Delhi
, and Bangalore
. For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2006,
Bank of America reported an 80% increase in net profit.
Bank of America operated under the name BankBoston in many other
Latin American countries, including Brazil. In 2006, Bank of
America sold all BankBoston's operations to Brazilian bank Banco
Itaú, in exchange for Itaú shares. The BankBoston name and
trademarks were not part of the transaction and, as part of the
sale agreement, cannot be used by Bank of America. (That meant the
extinction of the BankBoston brand.)
Bank of America's Global Corporate and Investment Banking spans the
Globe with divisions in United States, Europe, and Asia. The U.S.
headquarters are located in New York, European headquarters are
based in London, and Asia's headquarters are split between
Singapore & Hong Kong.
Board of Directors
- Susan Bies, ex-Federal Reserve Board Governor
- William Boardman, ex-chairman of Visa
International Inc.
- Frank P. Bramble Sr, Former Executive Officer, MBNA Corporation
- Virgis W. Colbert, (69), Senior Advisor, MillerCoors Company
- Charles K. Gifford, Former Chairman, Bank of America Corporation
- Charles O. Holliday, Chairman and former CEO of
DuPont
- D. Paul Jones, lawyer and former CEO at Compass Bancshares, a Birmingham, Alabama
bank now part of Banco
Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA
- Kenneth D. Lewis, President and Chief Executive
Officer, Bank of America
Corporation
- Monica C. Lozano, Publisher and Chief Executive
Officer of La Opinion
- Walter E. Massey, Chairman, Bank of America Corporation,
President Emeritus, Morehouse College

- Thomas J. May, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer,
NSTAR
- Donald Powell, former chairman of
the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corp.
- Charles O. Rossotti, (68) Senior Advisor, The Carlyle Group
- Thomas M. Ryan, President and Chief Executive Officer, CVS Caremark Corporation
John T. Collins, Chief Executive Officer, The Collins Group, Gary
L. Countryman, Chairman Emeritus,
Liberty Mutual Group, and William
Barnet III, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, The
Barnet Company, and mayor of Spartanburg, SC, resigned from the
Board in July, 2009, pushing the total of departures to ten since
April, 2009, reported
Bloomberg
News. Barnet, Collins and Countryman had joined the Board
after the 2004 purchase of FleetBoston Corp. Others to depart the
Board in 2009 included
Tommy Franks,
Retired General,
United States
Army (joined Board in 2005); Admiral
Joseph Prueher; Jackie M. Ward, Retired
Chairman/CEO, Computer Generation; Patricia E. Mitchell, President
and Chief Executive Officer,
The Paley Center for Media; O.
Temple Sloan, Jr., lead director of BofA and Chairman, General
Parts International; and Robert Tillman, retired CEO at
Lowe's Cos. Meredith Spangler, Trustee and Board
Member, resigned after reaching 72, the bank’s age limit.
Four members—Bies, Boardman, Powell, and Jones—were named to the
Board in June, 2009. Membership totalled 13 by August, 2009. More
additions were expected, according to the
Bloomberg
report.
Historical Data
Image:Bofa_al.jpg|Asset &
LiabilityImage:Bofa_al_ratio.jpg|Asset/Liability
RatioImage:Bofa_income.jpg|Net IncomeBank of America was the second
largest bank at the end of 2008 as an individual bank. (Not
including subsidiaries)
Major shareholders
Individuals |
Shares held |
Kenneth D Lewis |
2,372,260 |
John A Thain |
679,946 |
Bruce L Hammonds |
504,429 |
Keith T Banks |
336,371 |
Charles K Gifford |
334,176 |
Institutions |
Shares held |
% held |
Barclays Global Investors |
192,077,414 |
3.83 |
State Street Corp |
187,394,299 |
3.73 |
FMR |
152,596,052 |
3.04 |
Vanguard Group |
142,204,635 |
2.83 |
Capital World Investors |
114,829,550 |
2.29 |
Wellington Management Comp |
102,053,133 |
2.03 |
AXA |
89,824,923 |
1.79 |
Bank of New York Mellon Corp |
65,284,687 |
1.30 |
Morgan Stanley |
58,081,288 |
1.16 |
JP Morgan Chase & Co |
54,816,605 |
1.09 |
- data from Yahoo! Finance as of January 1, 2009
Other individuals
Jonathan Finger, whose Houston-based family owns more than 1
million shares of stock and has pressed for boardroom changes
Social responsibility
In addition to its new eco-friendly office tower in Manhattan, Bank
of America has pledged to spend billions on commercial lending and
investment banking for projects that it considers "green." The
corporation supplied all of its employees with cash incentives to
buy hybrid vehicles, and began providing mortgage loan breaks for
customers whose homes qualified as energy efficient. In 2007, Bank
of America partnered with
Brighter
Planet to offer an eco-friendly credit card, and later a debit
card, which help build renewable energy projects with each
purchase. The corporation is also constructing the
One Bank of America Center in
Downtown Charlotte. The tower,
and the accompanying hotel, will be a LEED-certified
building.
Bank of America has also donated money to help health centers in
Massachusetts and made donations to help homeless shelters in
Miami.
In 2004 the bank pledged $750 billion over a ten-year period for
community development lending and investment. The company had
delivered more than $230 billion against a ten-year commitment of
$350 billion made in 1998 to provide affordable mortgage, build
affordable housing, support small business and create jobs in
disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Diversity and inclusion
Bank of America was named for the 19th year as one of the "100 Best
Companies for Working Mothers" in 2007 by
Working Mother
magazine. In 2006 Bank of America was one of the first companies
inducted into
Working Mother magazine's Hall of
Fame.
In 2007,
DiversityInc ranked Bank of America as the number
one company for diversity in this prestigious list and placed as a
top employer for executive women, Hispanics, Asian Americans and
for GLBT executives, as well as number one for recruitment and
retention, and number six for supplier diversity.
IT Senior Management
Forum (ITSMF) recognized Bank of America as the "2007
Organization of the Year." This award is presented annually for
leadership in the areas of developing and embracing a diverse
workforce.
National Black MBA Association awarded Bank of America the
"2006 Company of the Year" for recruiting, retaining and providing
advancement opportunities for blacks in the workplace. It also
recognized Bank of America's Managing Director, Deputy Head of
Global Investment Banking Lewis Warren, Jr. as one of the "75 Most
Powerful Blacks on Wall Street."
Bank of America was named the number one company for Hispanics by
Hispanics Business Magazine in 2006.
Latina Style continues to rank
Bank of America in their Top 15 for its
50 Best Companies for
Latinas, which measures companies based on recruitment,
retention and advancement opportunities for Latinas.
Human Rights Campaign 2006 Corporate Equality Index gave
Bank of America a 100% rating for its support of gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender associates.
Ponzi scheme
Recent controversy comes from a New York lawsuit that Manhattan
attorney, Jacob Zamansky, has filed that claims Bank of America was
involved in a $413 million Ponzi scheme. The lawsuit alleges that
the bank “aided and abetted, encouraged, and rendered substantial
assistance” to the $413 million fraud that federal prosecutors say
was perpetrated by Nicholas Cosmo and his company Agape World. An
amended lawsuit against the Bank of America, charged that it
breached its ‘know your customer’ obligations by allowing a
convicted felon to manage millions through about two dozen BofA
accounts.
The lawsuit also claims that a Bank of America branch in West
Hempstead, approximately 20 miles from the Agape office, assigned
more than one bank employee to work out of Cosmo’s office in
Hauppauge and supplied direct access to the bank’s accounts and
systems.
"Bank of America ignored banking compliance standards and did not
file any suspicious activity reports as $400 million was run
through numerous BofA accounts by a convicted felon," says Jacob
Zamansky of Zamansky & Associates, one the plaintiff's lawyers
in the lawsuit. "This case highlights the role of financial
institutions in assisting Ponzi schemes."
The complaint accuses Bank of America of housing 13 accounts used
by Cosmo and his brokers, some of whom had criminal records of
their own. The bank did nothing to intervene as investor money was
commingled, wired to commodities futures brokerages and used to pay
off Cosmo's personal expenses, according to the complaint.
Bank of America corporate buildings

- Bank of America Center in
Boise,
ID

- Bank of America Tower
in Phoenix,
AZ
- Bank of
America Center
in Los Angeles, CA
- 555 California Street
, formerly the Bank of America Center, in San
Francisco, CA
- Bank of
America Tower
in Jacksonville, FL
- Bank of America Tower
in Miami,
FL
- Bank of America Building
in Orlando,
FL

- Bank of America
Tower in St.
Petersburg, FL

- Bank of America Tower in
Tampa,
FL

- Bank of America Plaza
in Atlanta,
GA
(the tallest U.S. building outside of NYC and
Chicago)
- Bank of America Building
, formerly the LaSalle Bank Building in Chicago, IL
- Bank of
America Building
in Baltimore, MD
- Bank of America Plaza
in St Louis,
MO
- Bank of America Corporate
Center
in Charlotte, NC
(The corporate headquarters)
- Bank of America Plaza in
Charlotte,
NC

- One Bank of America
Center in Charlotte,
NC

- Bank of
America Tower
in Albuquerque, NM
- Bank of America Tower
in New York City, NY
- Bank of America Building
in Providence,
RI

- Bank of America Plaza
in Dallas,
TX
- Bank of America Center
in Houston,
TX
- Bank of
America Building in Bellevue, WA

- Bank of America Fifth Avenue
Plaza in Seattle,
WA

- Columbia Center
in Seattle,
WA
- One City
Center, often called the Bank of America building due to
signage rights, in Portland,
ME

- 200
Front Street West, often called the Bank of America tower in
Toronto,
ON

- Bank of America Tower in
Hong
Kong

- BA-Lepanto
Building, Makati
City
,Philippines
. Now called as the Lepanto building
See also
References
- see detailed history below
- Atlantic Magazine,Sept. 2009,"An offer he couldn't refuse" by
William D. Cohan
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8008158.stm
- Comparative BofA
Industry-Metric Analysis Via Wikinvest
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Four_(banks)
- see http://www.fdic.gov/bank/statistical/guide/index.html for
basic data
- The Bank of Italy in Italy was created in 1893 through the
merger of 3 of the 6 banks at the time: Banca Nazionale nel Regno
d'Italia and 2 Tuscan banks.
- 1986, Deutsche Bank AG acquires Banca d'America e
d'Italia from Bank of America Corp
- In 1986 Deutsche Bank AG acquired 100% of Banca d’America e
d’Italia, a bank established in Naples in 1917 following the name
change of Banca dell'Italia Meridionale.
- In 1918 another corporation, Bancitaly Corporation, was
organized by A. P. Giannini, the largest stockholder of which was
Stockholders Auxiliary Corporation. This company acquired the
stocks of various banks located in New York City and certain
foreign countries
- In 1918 the Bank of Italy opened a Delegation in New York,
to follow American political, economic and financial affairs more
closely; together with the London Delegation, this was the first
permanent overseas office opened by the Bank, at a time when the
foundations were being laid for the restructuring of the
international money market.
- 1929 [...] -- The Vatican awards Knighthood in the Order of
Malta to two San Franciscans, Transamerica Corporation President
Amadeo Peter Giannini and American Trust Company President
John S. Drum. The knighthood is the oldest and most distinguished
decoration of laymen conferred by the Catholic Church.
- Transamerica Corporation, a corporation of
Delaware, has petitioned this court to review an order of the
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System entered against it
under Section 11 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 21, to enforce
compliance with Section 7 of the Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 18.
- http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202424529176
-
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aiu6I5m66pcw&refer=home
- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/business/15lehman.html
- Lehman Brothers files for Bankruptcy
-
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i2utZN9Et0f-U1kZR8zBMw51evaA
- "Singapore's Temasek defends costly Bank of America
exit" by Kevin Lim and Saeed Azhar, Reuters, May 22,
2009. Retrieved 8/3/09.
- "BofA Settles S.E.C. Suit Over Merrill Deal" by
Zachery Kouwe, DealBook blog, The New York Times, Aug. 3,
2009. Retrieved 8/3/09.
- "Judge blocks Bank of America-SEC bonus
settlement" by Jonathan Stempel, Reuters, 8/6/09.
Retrieved 8/7/09.
- "Judge Attacks Merrill Pre-Merger Bonuses" by
Louise Story, The New York Times, August 10, 2009 (Aug.
11, 2009, p. B1 of NY ed.). Retrieved 8/11/09.
- "Judge Rejects Settlement Over Merrill Bonuses" by
Louise Story, The New York Times, September 14, 2009.
Retrieved 9/14/09.
-
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.38849e166a876fe3b800838530d14243.e31&show_article=1
-
http://uk.reuters.com/article/americasDealsNews/idUKTRE5140OA20090205
-
http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/11/news/companies/congress_banks/index.htm?postversion=2009021117
- A.I.G. Lists Firms It Paid With Taxpayer Money,
The New York Times, March 15, 2009
- US Regulators to B of A: Obey or Else, The Wall
Street Journal, July 16, 2009
- "Five big banks form Global ATM Alliance",
ATMmarketplace.com. January 9, 2002. Accessed June 22, 2007.
- BANC refers to Bank of America North
Carolina; Bank of America was formerly headquartered in San
Francisco, California
- www.legalbusinessonline.com.au
- Company Web page Retrieved 8/2/09.
- "Former Compass CEO Jones returns to Balch and
Bingham" by Crystal Jarvis, April 18, 2008. Retrieved
8/2/09.
- "Bank of America Says Three Directors Quit as
Exodus Totals 10" by David Mildenberg, Bloomberg.com,
August 1, 2009. Retrieved 8/1/09.
- Houston investors set for BofA showdown Houston
Business Journal
-
http://libn.com/blog/2009/04/30/attorney-bank-of-america-employees-aided-agape-fraud/
- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/business/28ponzi.html
-
http://bx.businessweek.com/brokerage-firms/update-agape-investors-sue-bank-of-america-futures-brokers/659162799004282670-fc64e7ea140a56eac3827620a6bbb30e/
- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123818080821159481.html
-
http://www.allbusiness.com/legal/legal-services-litigation/12275344-1.html
-
http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/27/bank-of-america-ponzi-long-island-personal-finance-investing-ideas_agape.html
Further reading
External links