Bank Of America
The Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America; often abbreviated BAC, BofA, or, less commonly, BOA) is an American multinational bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, with investment banking and auxiliary headquarters in Manhattan. The bank was formed by the merger of NationsBank and the legacy corporation of Bank of America in 1998. It is the second-largest banking institution in the United States by consolidated assets, after JPMorgan Chase. It is also the second-largest bank in the world by market capitalization, after JPMorgan Chase.
Among the Big Four banking institution and one of eight systemically important financial institutions in the United States; it competes with JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo. Its primary financial services revolve around commercial banking, wealth management, and investment banking.
Through past mergers, the oldest branch of the Bank of America franchise dates back to 1784, when Massachusetts Bank was chartered, becoming the first federally chartered joint-stock-owned bank in the United States. Another branch of its history goes back to the American-based Bank of Italy, founded by Amadeo Pietro Giannini in 1904, which provided various banking services to Italian immigrants who faced service discrimination at the time. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Giannini acquired Banca d'America e d'Italia in 1922 and eventually did business as Bank of America.
In the 1950s, the passage of landmark federal banking legislation facilitated rapid growth, quickly establishing prominent shares for the present bank's predecessors. After suffering significant losses during the 1998 Russian financial crisis, BankAmerica, as it was then known, was acquired by the Charlotte-based NationsBank for $62 billion. Following what was then the largest bank acquisition in history, the Bank of America Corporation was founded. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, it built upon its commercial banking business by establishing Merrill Lynch for wealth management and Bank of America Merrill Lynch for investment banking in 2008 and 2009, respectively, and since renamed BofA Securities.
As of 2018, the investment bank was considered within the "bulge bracket" as the world's third-largest investment bank. Its wealth management unit then managing $1.08 trillion in assets under management (AUM) as the second-largest wealth manager in the world, after UBS. In commercial banking, Bank of America has operations, but does not maintain retail branches in all 50 states of the United States, Washington, D.C., and over 40 other countries.
The bank's large market share, business activities, and economic impact have led to numerous lawsuits and investigations regarding both mortgages and financial disclosures dating back to the 2008 financial crisis. Its corporate practices of servicing the middle class and wider banking community have yielded a substantial market share since the early 20th century. As of August 2018, Bank of America has a $313.5 billion market capitalization, making it the 13th largest company in the world.
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