The Bank of America Corporation (simply referred to as Bank of America, often abbreviated as BofA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, with central hubs in New York City, London, Hong Kong, Dallas, and Toronto.

Founded in San Francisco, Bank of America was formed through NationsBank’s acquisition of BankAmerica in 1998. It is the second largest banking institution in the United States, after JPMorgan Chase, and the eighth largest bank in the world. Bank of America is one of the Big Four banking institutions of the United States.

It services approximately 10.73% of all American bank deposits, in direct competition with JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo. Its primary financial services revolve around commercial banking, wealth management, and investment banking.

One branch of its history stretches back to Bank of Italy, founded by Amadeo Pietro Giannini in 1904, which provided Italian immigrants who faced service discrimination various banking options. Originally headquartered in San Francisco, California, Giannini acquired Banca d’America e d’Italia (Bank of America and Italy) in 1922.

The passage of landmark federal banking legislation facilitated a rapid growth in the 1950s, quickly establishing a prominent market share. After suffering a significant loss after the 1998 Russian bond default, BankAmerica, as it was then known, was acquired by the Charlotte-based NationsBank for US$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 (since renamed BofA Securities).

Both Bank of America and Merrill Lynch Wealth Management retain large market shares in their respective offerings. The investment bank is considered within the “Bulge Bracket” as the third largest investment bank in the world, as of 2018.

Its wealth management side manages US$1.081 trillion in assets under management (AUM) as the second largest wealth manager in the world, after UBS. In commercial banking, Bank of America operates—but does not necessarily maintain retail branches—in all 50 states of the United States, the District of Columbia and more than 40 other countries.

Its commercial banking footprint encapsulates 46 million consumer and small business relationships at 4,600 banking centers and 15,900 automated teller machines (ATMs).

The bank’s large market share, business activities, and economic impact has 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 has 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. As the sixth largest American public company, it garnered $102.98 billion in sales as of June 2018.

Bank of America was ranked #24 on the 2018 Fortune 500 rankings of the largest US corporations by total revenue. Bank of America was named the “World’s Best Bank” by the Euromoney Institutional Investor in their 2018 Awards for Excellence.

Traded as:           NYSE: BAC;     S&P 100 component;    S&P 500 component

Industry:              Financial services

Predecessor:     Bank America, NationsBank

Founded:            1956 (as BankAmerica) 1998 (via the merger of BankAmerica & NationsBank)

Founder:             Amadeo Giannini (BankAmerica); Hugh McColl (NationsBank)

Headquarters:   Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S. (Corporate) New York, NY (Investment banking)

Products:             Consumer banking, corporate banking, insurance, investment banking, mortgage loans, private banking, private equity, wealth management, credit cards

Divisions:             BofA Securities; Merrill; Bank of America Private Bank

Website:              www.bankofamerica.com