Bank of America – Company Overview, History, Products

Bank of America Corporation is one of the largest American multinational banks, it is one of the largest investment and financial services banks in America and is currently headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Bank of America currently employs more than 200,000 employees worldwide. Bank of America is the second largest popular bank in the United States after JP Morgan Chase as per market capitalization. It ranks among the four most popular banks used by American citizens including JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, and Wells Fargo.

The CEO of Bank of America is Brian Moynihan and its Vice-chairman is Anne Finucane and Bruce Thompson. The Bank of America is currently listed on the New York stock exchange where it has a market capitalization of more than 300 billion dollars. It generated a revenue of more than 90 billion dollars in the financial year 2021.

The various products and services provided by the Bank of America are investment banking, credit cards, insurance, asset management, mortgage loans, mutual funds, risk & wealth management, and private banking. 

The Bank of America currently has an asset under management base of more than 3 trillion dollars. Bank of America operates in all 50 states of the United States along with 40 other countries as well. It has a customer base of more than 50 million users with over 5000 branches and 16,000 ATMs all over the world.

Bank of America is currently the third-largest investment banking firm in the world. It ranks in the top 25 companies list in the Fortune 500 companies in terms of revenue. Bank of America has also received the award for the World’s Best Bank in 2018 for its excellent banking techniques.

Bank of America Corporation – History & Overview

The Bank of America was founded as a subsidiary of the Bank of Italy in 1923 by the founders Amadeo Giannini and Hugh McColl. The first branch of Bank of America was established in Los Angeles in 1923. By 1928, Bank of America and Bank of Italy merged to form the largest banking institution in the country. By 1930, the name of the merged bank was named Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association. 

Due to the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, the Bank of America had to separate its purchase of TransAmerica Corporation and its domestic banks outside of the California region into separate companies which later became the First Interstate Bancorp, which was acquired by Wells Fargo and company in 1996.

Bank of America also launched its famous BankAmericard which was later known as Visa Inc. in 1977. Bank of America was also related to the formation of Interbank in 1966 which challenged Bank of America’s BankAmericard to form MasterCard in 1979. After the 1980s, there was a change in the federal banking system which helped Bank of America to expand to regions outside of California. Bank of America made its first expansion outside the California region in 1983 towards the Seattle National Bank.

In 1987, Bank of America faced huge losses due to a series of bad loans during the Cold War. So, Bank of America had to sell many of its operations like FinanceAmerica, Bank of America, and Italy to other companies to avoid the crash. Then in 1992, Bank of America acquired Security Pacific Corporation and Valley Bank of Nevada which were the largest acquisitions made by Bank of America at that time. Bank of America acquired many other banks like the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trusts Co. and the NationsBank Corporation in the 1990s to become the largest U.S. bank ever in terms of the asset base. It also lent the famous hedge fund DE Shaw & Co. 1.5 billion dollars for its operations in various banks.

The largest banking acquisition in history took place in 1998 when Nations Bank of Charlotte acquired BankAmerica for more than 62 billion dollars, which resulted in the merger of Bank of America Corporation. By 2005, Bank of America acquired the credit card company MBNA for more than 35 billion dollars to increase its credit card business. In 2007, Bank of America acquired LaSalle Bank Corporation which increased its assets under management (AUM) base to 1.9 trillion dollars. In 2008, Bank of America acquired Countrywide Financial which helped it to become the leading mortgage loan provider bank. But in 2009, as there was a global economic crisis, Bank of America faced huge losses, so it received more than 20 billion dollars as a relief fund and a guarantee of 120 billion dollars in potential losses from the US treasury.

Bank of America Corporation – Products and Services

The various products and services of the Bank of America are as follows:

Asset Management – It is a service that allows the governance and management of the asset over its whole life cycle as an investment.

Investment Banking – This service relates to the financial services of a company based on the transactions related to corporate finance and equities.

Mortgage Loans – These loans are given by Bank of America for the purchase of real estate to raise the funds for the customer.

Equity Trading – Equity trading is a service that allows you to maximize your profit through the purchase and sale of stocks or securities by investors in large publicly traded companies.

Insurance – Bank of America also provides various types of risk management insurance to its customers like life insurance, health insurance, accident insurance, and vehicle insurance.

Wrapping Up:

Hence, Bank of America is one of the oldest and largest banks present in the United States. It is the second largest bank in the United States after JP Morgan Chase as per market capital. It provides various services to its customers like asset management, mortgage loans, insurance, private equity, mutual funds, and credit cards.