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The Bank of America Corporation, sometimes known as BofA or BoA, is a holding company for financial services and a global American investment bank with its headquarters in the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. In San Francisco, the bank was established. After JPMorgan Chase, it is the second-largest bank in the United States. By market value, it is also the second-largest bank globally. One of the Big Four U.S. financial organizations is Bank of America.  It competes directly with JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo for the roughly 10.73% of all bank deposits in the United States. Commercial banking, wealth management, and investment banking are its three main financial services Amado Petro Giannini founded the Bank of Italy in the United States in 1904, which gave Italian immigrants who were subject to service discrimination a variety of banking options Giannini purchased Banca d’America e d’Italia (Bank of America and Italy) in 1922. Banca d’America e d’Italia had its initial headquarters in San Francisco, California. In the 1950s, a rapid expansion was made possible by the passing of important federal banking laws, which swiftly established a commanding market dominance. When the Russian bond failure in 1998 occurred, BankAmerica, as it was then known, suffered a huge loss. As a result, it was bought out for US$62 billion by Charlotte-based NationsBank. The Bank of America Corporation was established after the largest bank purchase in history at the time. It expanded on its foundation through a number of mergers and acquisitions Merrill Lynch was founded in 2008 for wealth management, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch in 2009 for investment banking, respectively (since renamed BofA Securities).

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In their respective product categories, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch Wealth Management both continue to hold significant market shares. As of 2018, the investment bank is ranked third among all investment banks worldwide in the “Bulge Bracket.” Its wealth management division, which is in second place to UBS in terms of assets under management (AUM), oversees US$1.081 trillion.  In terms of commercial banking, Bank of America runs retail locations in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, as well as more than 40 additional nations, albeit it does not always maintain these locations 46 million consumer and small business contacts are included in its commercial banking portfolio, which includes 15,900 automated teller machines and 4,600 banking facilities (ATMs)

Numerous lawsuits and investigations pertaining to mortgages and financial disclosures, dating back to the 2008 financial crisis, have been sparked by the bank’s significant market share, business operations, and economic impact. Since the early 20th century, its business policies of providing services to the middle class and a larger banking community have produced a sizable market share. With a market capitalization of $313.5 billion as of August 2018, Bank of America is the 13th largest company in the world. It generated $102.98 billion in sales as of June 2018, making it the sixth largest American public firm On the 2020 Fortune 500 list of the biggest US companies by total revenue, Bank of America came in at number 25 Similarly, Bank of America was rated #8 on the 2020 Global 2000 Forbes’ rankings are used. In their 2018 Awards for Excellence, Euromoney Institutional Investor dubbed Bank of America the “World’s Best Bank.”

History

When Bank of America, Los Angeles was established in 1923, the Bank of America name first appeared. It was bought by Bank of Italy of San Francisco in 1928, and two years later the bank adopted the name Bank of America.  The first federally chartered joint-stock owned bank in the United States and only the second bank to be granted a charter in the country was Massachusetts Bank, which is when the eastern portion of the Bank of America franchise can be traced back to. In 2004, Bank of America joined with this bank to form FleetBoston. In Charlotte, Commercial National Bank was established in 1874. In order to become American Commercial Bank, that bank amalgamated with American Trust Company in 195   It became North two years later when Security National Bank of Greensboro amalgamated with Carolina National Bank. It joined forces with the Atlanta-based and Norfolk-based C&S/Sovran Corporation to form NationsBank in 1991. The Continental National Bank of Chicago and Commercial National Bank combined in 1910 to form Continental & Commercial National Bank, which later changed its name to Continental Illinois National Bank & Trust. This is when the central part of the franchise was established.

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Growth in California

Amadeo Pietro Giannini established the Bank of Italy in San Francisco on October 17, 1904, which is when Bank of America was first established With Giannini as a junior stakeholder, Bank of America, Los Angeles was founded in 1922. In 1928, the two banks amalgamated and combined with other bank interests to form what would eventually grow to be the largest banking organization in the nation  A. P. Giannini established the Bancitaly Corporation in 1918, with Stockholders Auxiliary Corporation as its major owner. [Reference needed] This corporation purchased the equity of numerous banks with locations in New York City and other international nations. [Reference needed] Giannini merged his institution with the Orra E. Monnette-run Bank of America, Los Angeles, in 1928. Renaming Bank of Italy dated November 3, 1930, to the sole designated bank in the United States at the time, Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association Co-chairs Giannini and Monnette were in charge of the resulting business In 1983, Stephen McLin helped Bank of America acquire Seattle-First National Bank, a wholly owned banking subsidiary of Seafirst Corporation of Seattle, Washington. This transaction marked the company’s first foray outside of California Due to a string of subpar loans to the oil industry, Seafirst was in danger of being seized by the federal government after going bankrupt. Up to the 1998 merger with NationsBank, BankAmerica continued to run its new subsidiary as Seafirst rather than Bank of America

Large losses were incurred by BankAmerica in 1986 and 1987 as a result of a number of subprime loans, particularly those made to Latin America. [Reference needed] In 1986, the business fired Sam Armacost as CEO. Despite Armacost’s accusations that A.W. (Tom) Clausen was to blame for the issues, Clausen was chosen to succeed Armacost. [Reference needed] The losses caused BankAmerica’s stock to drop precipitously, leaving it open to a hostile takeover. In the fall of 1986, First Interstate Bancorp of Los Angeles (which had originally sprung from banks that BankAmerica had once held) made such an offer, but BankAmerica rejected it, primarily through selling operations. It gave back to Mr. Schwab the brokerage firm Charles Schwab and Co. that it had sold to Chrysler along with its Finance America subsidiary. It also sold Italy and Bank of America to Deutsche Bank. BankAmerica’s share price had dropped to $8 by the time of the 1987 stock market crisis, but by 1992 it had made a significant comeback to rank among the top gainers of that five-year period. [Reference needed].

Chicago’s Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Co. was purchased by BankAmerica in 1994. Because no bank at the time had the funds to save Continental, the federal government ran the bank for almost ten years. Since branch banking was then severely controlled in Illinois, Bank of America Illinois operated as a single unit until the 21st century. To build a financial base in the area, BankAmerica relocated its national lending division to Chicago In terms of deposits, these mergers helped BankAmerica Corporation regain its position as the largest U.S. bank holding company. However, the company dropped to second place in 1997 behind the rapidly expanding NationsBank Corporation of North Carolina and to third place in 1998 behind First Union Corp. [Reference needed]

The Bank of America logo has been in use since 1998.

On the capital markets side, BankAmerica’s purchase of Continental Illinois aided in the development of a leveraged finance origination- and distribution business, enabling the company’s existing broker-dealer, BancAmerica Securities (previously known as BA Securities), to become a full-service franchise. Additionally, in 1997, BankAmerica paid $540 million to acquire San Francisco-based high technology investment bank Robertson Stephens. The combined subsidiary of Robertson Stephens and BancAmerica Securities was christened “BancAmerica.”

NationsBank and BankAmerica’s merger

From 1969 to 1998, Bank of America (BA) used this logo. BankAmerica provided D. E. Shaw & Co. with a $1.4 billion loan in 1997 so that it could manage a number of different businesses for the bank However, after the 1998 Russia bond default, D.E. Shaw sustained a substantial loss. The largest bank purchase in history at the time occurred in October 1998 when NationsBank of Charlotte acquired BankAmerica NationsBank was the ostensible survivor, but the combined bank used the more recognizable name of Bank of America. As a result, the holding company was changed to Bank of America Corporation, and the final legal bank entity, Bank of America, N.A., was created by the merger of NationsBank, N.A. and Bank of America NT&SA. Under Federal Charter 13044, this was issued in the year awarded on March 1st, 1927 to Giannini’s Bank of Italy. However, the combined company’s headquarters were and are still in Charlotte, and its stock price history before to 1998 is that of NationsBank. Prior to 1998, NationsBank, not Bank of America, is listed as the filing party for all U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents. Hugh McColl, the president, chairman, and CEO of NationsBank, retained his positions with the combined business.

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Bank of America had 4,800 branches spread over 22 states and $570 billion in total assets in 1998. [Reference needed] Federal regulators only required the divestment of 13 branches in New Mexico, in places where there would only be one bank after the combination, despite the size of the two corporations. In 1998, Banc of America Securities replaced Nations Banc Montgomery Securities as the broker-name dealer’s Bank of America stated in 2004 that it would pay $47 billion in cash and equity to acquire FleetBoston Financial, a bank based in Boston All of its banks and branches received the Bank of America logo as a result of the merger. With $197 billion in assets, more than 20 million clients, and $12 billion in annual income, FleetBoston was the seventh largest bank in the United States at the time of the merger According to The Boston Globe, hundreds of FleetBoston employees were let go or degraded. Bank of America stated on June 30, 2005, that it will pay $35 billion in cash and equity to acquire the largest provider of credit cards, MBNA. The merger received final approval from the Federal Reserve Board on December 15, 2005, and it was completed on January 1, 2006. With the acquisition of MBNA, Bank of America gained access to a significant local and international credit card issuer. More than 40 million American accounts and about $140 billion in outstanding balances were held by the consolidated Bank of America Card Services company, which also included the old MBNA. The business became FIA Card Services under Bank of America In numerous other Latin American nations, including Brazil, Bank of America operated as BankBoston. The acquisition agreement between Bank of America and Banco Ita (Investimentos Ita S.A.) was signed in May 2006. In exchange for Ita shares, Ita agreed to acquire BankBoston’s operations in Brazil and was given the exclusive right to acquire Bank of America’s businesses in Chile and Uruguay. It was formally agreed upon in August 2006 Asset management, private banking, a credit card portfolio, small, middle-market, and big corporate segments were all part of BankBoston’s Brazilian business prior to the sale. In Brazil, it had 66 branches and 203,000 customers. In Chile, BankBoston had 44 locations and 58,000 clients; in Uruguay, it had 15 locations. Additionally, Uruguay had a 23-branch credit card corporation called OCA. Together with OCA, BankBoston N.A. served 372,000 clients in Uruguay. The BankBoston name and trademarks could not be used by Bank of America in Brazil, Chile, or Uruguay after the transactions even though they were not a part of the deal. Thus, the BankBoston brand is no longer used in Brazil, Chile, or Uruguay. The Ita stock that the Bank received

Bank DOD Community

Logo of DOD Community Bank
In collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense, Bank of America has established a newly chartered bank called DOD Community Bank (“Community Bank”). At its 68 branches and ATM locations[102] on U.S. military bases in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, Diego Garcia, Germany, Japan, Italy, Kwajalein Atoll, South Korea, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, Community Bank offers full banking services to military personnel. Despite the fact that Community Bank is owned by Bank of America, customer services between the two financial organizations are not interchangeable[103], hence Community Bank customers cannot withdraw money from their accounts at Bank of America branches and vice versa. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insures deposits placed into checking and savings accounts up to the maximum amount