BizAims

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. As a result of its mergers and acquisitions, Bank of America is now the largest issuer of credit, debit and prepaid cards in the world based on total purchase volume, as well as the largest consumer and small business bank in the United States

Bank of America is the largest commercial bank in the United States by both deposits and market capitalization.

Before 1998, the Bank of America organization that exists today was known as NationsBank and was previously known in earlier years as North Carolina National Bank before being abbreviated to "NCNB" as it branched out of its home base of Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1998, NationsBank acquired San Francisco-based BankAmerica and renamed the corporation "Bank of America".

Many historical banks across the United States have been consolidated into the Bank of America. The most prominent is the Bank of Italy, founded in San Francisco by Amadeo Giannini in 1904 based on catering to immigrants. In the late 1920s, Giannini approached Orra E. Monnette, President and founder of Bank of America, Los Angeles, about a merger between the two entities. The Los Angeles based bank had exhibited strong growth throughout the 1920s, due in part to its success in developing an advanced branch banking system. The merger was completed in early 1929 and took the name Bank America.

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 losses resulted in a huge decline of BankAmerica stock, making it vulnerable to a hostile takeover. 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 Security Pacific's Washington subsidiary, Rainier Bank, as the combination of Seafirst and Rainier would have given BankAmerica too large a share of the market in that state. 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. 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. In 1998, BankAmerica was purchased by NC-based NationsBank, and changed the headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina.

In 1997, BankAmerica lent D. E. Shaw & Co., 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 1998 Russia bond default. BankAmerica was later acquired by NationsBank that year.

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.

In 2004, Bank of America purchased Louisville, Kentucky-based National Processing Company for $1.4 billion from National City Corp. The renamed company—BA Merchant Services—processes one in every five VISA and MasterCard transactions. The company also provides financial solutions for travel and healthcare companies. BA Merchant Services is headquartered in Louisville, with a call center in El Paso, Texas.Also in 2004, Bank of America acquired Boston, Massachusetts-based FleetBoston Financial for $47 billion in an all-stock deal to solidify Bank of America's position as the bank with the largest FDIC-rated deposit market share in the United States with $513 billion in deposits, well ahead of the number two bank holding company, newly-merged JPMorgan Chase-Bank One with $353 billion in deposits and number three Wells Fargo & Co. with $228 billion. This acquisition gave Bank of America access to the northeastern market.

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.

In May 2006, the Bank of America and Banco Itaú 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.

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 AUM and over 150 years of experience. The deal closed 1 July 2007.

On September 14, 2007, Bank of America won approval from the Federal Reserve to acquire ABN Amro North America, LaSalle Bank Corporation and LaSalle Corporate Finance from ABN AMRO for $21 billion. With this combination Bank of America will have 1.7 trillion in assets. The acquisition was completed on October 1, 2007. 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 customers now have fee free access to Bank of America ATMs from coast to coast as well as access to the Global ATM Alliance.

On August 23, 2007 the company announced a $2 billion dollar repurchase agreement for Countrywide Financial. This purchase of preferred stock is arranged to provide a return on investment of 7.25% per annum and provides the option to purchase common stock at a price of $18 per share.

On January 11, 2008 Bank of America announced that they will buy Countrywide Financial for $4 billion. This acquisition will give the bank a substantial market share of the mortgage business, and access to Countrywide's expertise, technology, and employees for servicing mortgages. The acquisition also is seen as preventing the potential of bankruptcy for Countrywide. Countrywide has denied that it is close to bankruptcy. Countrywide provides mortgage servicing for nine million mortgages valued at $1.4 trillion USD as of December 31, 2007.

On January 11, 2008 Bank of America announced that they will buy Countrywide Financial for $4 billion. This acquisition will give the bank a substantial market share of the mortgage business, and access to Countrywide's expertise, technology, and employees for servicing mortgages. The acquisition also is seen as preventing the potential of bankruptcy for Countrywide.