Bank of America
File:BankofAmericalogo.png | |
Company type | Public (NYSE: BAC TYO: 8648) |
---|---|
ISIN | US0605051046 |
Industry | Money Center Banks |
Founded | (as "Bank of Italy")
San Francisco, CA (1928) (acquiring banks) Boston, MA (1784) |
Headquarters | Charlotte, North Carolina, USA |
Key people | Ken Lewis, Chairman & CEO Amy Brinkley, Global Risk Executive Alvaro de Molina, CFO |
Products | Banking |
Revenue | 98,581,000,000 United States dollar (2023) |
18,995,000,000 United States dollar (2020) | |
$21.13 billion USD (2006)[1] | |
Total assets | $1.291 trillion USD (2005) |
Number of employees | 176,638 (2005) |
Website | www.bankofamerica.com |
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC TYO: 8648), is the largest commercial bank in the United States as far as deposits, and the third-largest company in the world according to the 2006 Forbes Global 2000. [3] [4] Bank of America is the largest American company (by market capitalization) that is not part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. On 17 July 2006, Bank of America reported second quarter 2006 net income of $5.48 billion, surpassing that of Citigroup for the first time.
Corporate History
NationsBank
Before 1993, the Bank of America that exists today was known as NationsBank, based in Charlotte, NC. In 1998, Nationsbank merged with the smaller San Francisco-based BankAmerica. Nationsbank acquired BankAmerica and assumed the new Bank of America name.
Bank of Italy, BankAmerica, & BankAmericard
The roots of the pre-1998 Bank of America lie in the American Bank of Italy, founded in San Francisco by Amadeo Giannini in 1904. When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck, Giannini was able to get all of the deposits out of the bank building and away from the fires, and thus, unlike many other banks, had money to loan to those struck by the disaster.
In the late 1920s, Giannini approached Orra E. Monnette, President and founder of the Los Angeles based Bank of America, Los Angeles about a potential 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 bank branching system. The merger of the two institutions was completed in early 1929 and took the name Bank of America. The combined company was headed by Giannini with Monnette serving as co-Chair.3
While the names of many nationally chartered banks end with the initials 'N.A.' (National Association), Giannini picked a unique ending, National Trust and Savings Association, or 'NT&SA', because he wanted the name to highlight the different functions of the bank. Bank of America was the only NT&SA in the country. Thanks to good management, but also to aggressive development of the branch banking concept, the bank was soon the largest in California.
Giannini also sought to build a national bank, expanding into most of the western states as well as into the insurance industry, under the aegis of his holding company, Transamerica Corporation. Bank of America NT&SA also had banking relationships in international financial markets. Largely out of fear that Giannini would succeed in his efforts to create a nationwide bank, federal legislation prohibited banks from accepting deposits in states where they were not headquartered. This led to the creation of the bank holding company, which could own a separate bank in each state in which it operated. With the passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, banks were prohibited from owning non-banking subsidiaries such as insurance companies, and Bank of America and Transamerica were separated, with the latter company continuing in the insurance business. However, federal banking regulators prohibited Bank of America's interstate banking activity, and Bank of America's domestic banks outside of California were forced into a separate company that eventually became First Interstate Bancorp, which was acquired by Wells Fargo Corp. in 1996. It was not until the 1980s with a change in federal banking legislation and regulation that Bank of America was again able to expand its domestic consumer banking activity outside of California.
California was the nation's fastest growing state during the post-World War II boom, with the highest use of checking accounts (partially driven by many soldiers being paid via bank accounts during WWII), resulting in BankAmerica being swamped by checks. By 1949, the branches had to close at 2:00pm in order to process the bookkeeping by 5:00 p.m. To cope with the transaction volume, the bank invested heavily in information technology and is generally credited, together with GE and SRI, with inventing modern centralized bank operations, along with a number of financial transaction processing technologies such as automatic check processing, account numbers, and Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. Because of the efficiency of these technologies, the bank had significantly lower administrative costs than other banks and was able to expand until it became the world's largest bank in the early 1970s.
These technologies also enabled credit cards to be linked directly to individual bank accounts. In 1958, the bank invented the bank credit card, the BankAmericard, which changed its name to VISA in 1977. A consortium of other California banks came up with Master Charge (now MasterCard) in order to compete with BankAmericard.
Expansion outside of California
Following passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1967, BankAmerica Corporation was established for the purpose of owning BankAmerica 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 its 1998 merger with NationsBank.
BankAmerica was dealt huge losses in 1986 and 1987 due to the placement of a series of bad loans in the Third World, particularly in Latin America. The company fired its CEO, Sam Armacost, although Armacost blamed the problems on his predecessor, A.W. (Tom) Clausen, who was then appointed to replace Armacost. The losses resulted in a huge decline of BankAmerica stock, making it vulnerable to a hostile takeover.
First Interstate Bancorp of Los Angeles (which had originated from banks once owned by BofA), launched such a bid in the fall of 1986, although BankAmerica rebuffed it, mostly by selling its FinanceAmerica subsidiary to Chrysler and by selling the brokerage firm Charles Schwab and Co. back to Mr. Schwab. On the day of the 1987 stock market crash, BankAmerica was trading at $8 per share, although by 1992 it had rebounded mightily to become one of the biggest gainers of that half-decade. The selling of the corporate headquarters building in downtown San Francisco to raise capital was a symbolic blow to the bank.
BankAmerica's next big acquisition came in 1992. BankAmerica 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 biggest bank acquisition in history. Federal regulators nevertheless forced the sale of Security Pacific's Washington subsidiary, Rainier Bank, because 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 that had brought down Seafirst. At the time, no bank had the resources to bail out Continental, so the federal government operated the bank for nearly a decade. Illinois at that time regulated branch banking extremely heavily, so Bank of America Illinois was a single-unit bank until the 21st century. Bank of America moved its national lending department to Chicago in an effort to establish a financial beachhead in the region.
These mergers helped BankAmerica Corporation 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, also behind North Carolina's First Union Corp. In 1998, Bank Of America and NationsBank executed a merger-of-equal and changed the headquarter to Charlotte, North Carolina.
Merger of NationsBank and BankAmerica
The purchase of BankAmerica Corp. by the NationsBank Corporation was the largest bank acquisition in history at that time. While the deal was technically a purchase of BankAmerica Corporation by NationsBank, with the renaming of the former entity to Bank of America Corporation, the deal was structured as a merger, and Bank of America NT&SA, changing its name to Bank of America, N.A. was the remaining legal bank entity. The bank still operates under Federal Charter 13044 which was granted to Giannini's Bank of Italy on March 1, 1927. However, SEC filings before 1998 are listed under NationsBank, not Bank of America.
Following the $64.8 billion acquisition of BankAmerica by NationsBank, the resulting Bank of America had combined assets of $570 billion, and 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.
History since 1998
In 2001, Bank of America CEO and chairman Hugh McColl stepped down and named Ken Lewis as his successor. Lewis's greater focus on financial discipline and efficiency contrasted greatly with the expansionary mergers and acquisition strategy of his predecessor.
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 six VISA and MasterCard transactions. The company also provides financial solutions for travel and healthcare companies. BA Merchant Services is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky].
Also in 2004, Bank of America acquired Boston, Massachusetts-based FleetBoston Financial for $47 billion 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 (As of June 30, 2003).
On June 30, 2005 the bank 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 December 15, 2005, and the merger closed on January 1, 2006. The combined Bank of America Card Services organization - including the former MBNA - will have more than 40 million U.S. accounts and nearly $140 billion in outstanding balances.
In May 2006, the Bank of America and Banco Itau - (Investimentos Ita S.A.) entered into an acquisition agreement through which the Banco agreed to acquire BankBoston's operations in Brazil. BankBoston's Brazil includes asset management, private banking, a credit card portfolio, and small, middle-market and large corporate segments. It has 66 branches and 203,000 clients in Brazil. BankBoston in Chile has 44 branches and 58,000 clients and in Uruguay it has 15 branches. In addition, there is also a credit card Company, OCA, in Uruguay, which has 23 branches. BankBoston N.A. in Uruguay, together with OCA, jointly serve 372,000 clients. After the merger The BankBoston name and trademarks were not part of the transaction and, as part of the sale agreement, cannot be used by Bank of America. That, in practical terms, deemed the definite extinction of the BankBoston brand. Itaú also received exclusive rights to purchase BankBoston's operations in Chile and Uruguay. In return, Bank of America has taken about a 6% stake in Itaú. Banco Boston do Brazil had been founded in 1947. With the purchase, the BankBoston name will disappear from Brazil as BankAmerica has retained the rights to the name and in which they can't use the name due to the merger agreements.
Bank of America Today
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 today is comprised of three main divisions.
Consumer
Global Consumer and Small Business Banking is the largest division in the company, and deals primarily with consumer banking and credit card issuance. The acquisition of FleetBoston and MBNA significantly expanded its size and range of services, resulting in about 51% of the company's total revenue in 2005. It competes directly with the retail banking divisions of Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase. The GC&SBB organization includes over 5,700 retail branches and over 17,000 ATMs across the United States.
Corporate
Global Corporate and Investment Banking, also known as Banc of America Securities, provides mergers and acquisitions advisory, underwriting, as well as trading in fixed income and equities markets. Its strongest groups include Leveraged Finance, Syndicated Loans, and Mortgage Backed Securities. It also has one of the largest research teams on Wall Street.
Investment Management
Global Wealth and Investment Management manages assets of institutions and individuals. It is among the 10 largest U.S. wealth managers (ranked by private banking assets under management in accounts of $1 million or more as of June 30, 2005). In July 2006, Chairman Ken Lewis announced that GWIM's total assets under management exceeded $500,000,000,000. GWIM has five primary lines of business: Premier Banking & Investments (including Banc of America Investment Services, Inc.), The Private Bank, Family Wealth Advisors, Columbia Management Group, and Banc of America Specialist.
Bank of America is currently constructing a massive new headquarters for its New York City operations. The skyscaper will be located on 42nd Street and Avenue of the Americas, at Bryant Park, and will feature state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly technology throughout its 1.2 million square feet (111,484 m²) of office space. The building will be the headquarters for the company's investment banking division, and will also host most of Bank of America's New York based staff.
Social Responsibility
Bank of America in the mid 2000s began showing a charitable side to the corporation. In addition to its new eco-friendly headquaters, Bank of America has pledged to spend billions on commercial lending and investment banking for projects that it considers "green". The corporation, which already supplied all of its employees with cash incentives to buy hybrid vehicles, is also helping its customers be eco-friendly by rolling out a new credit card program in 2007 that would donate money to helping the environment, as well as providing mortgage loan breaks for customers whos homes qualified as energy efficient.[5]
In addition to trying to help the environment, Bank of America has also donated money to help health centers in Massachusetts[6] and made donations to help homeless shelters in Miami.[7]
Controversy and Criticism
Account closures without warning
When opening a deposit account at Bank of America, the customer signs a signature card which also acts as an agreement between the customer and Bank of America. The signature card states "the written information we give you is part of this agreement and tells you the current terms of our deposit accounts" and that the agreement can be changed at any time. [8] Bank of America's policy is to provide the customer with the Deposit Agreement when the account is opened, as well as addenda to the Deposit Agreement in statement inserts. However, if an employee fails to provide the Deposit Agreement, or if the customer fails to read it, a new customer may enter into a contractual agreement with Bank of America without knowing its terms, which includes the right of Bank of America to close a customer's account without warning. Some have criticized this process, as there is no verification that the bank makes full disclosure of this information, or that the customer received the information.
In 2000 a customer in California successfully sued Bank of America and recovered over a quarter of a million dollars in damages after the bank closed his accounts without advanced warning and returned several checks marked "insufficient funds" or "account closed." The jury concluded that although Bank of America had the right to close the account (as the customer in question had unclean hands), it had "breached the covenant of good faith and fair dealing" by doing so without warning and then by leading the check recipients to believe the customer had written bad checks, when in fact it was Bank of America's conduct that prevented the checks from clearing. [9]
Excessive overdraft fees
In 1999, a class action lawsuit was filed against Bank of America for engaging in the practice of "Biggest Check First" check-clearing. Put simply, the bank clears checks and ATM/debit card transactions in order from biggest to smallest, with less regard to what time they come in during that business day. The lawsuit claimed that this is done on purpose: Bank of America uses "Biggest Check First" to manipulate the order of transactions to artificially trigger more overdraft fees to collect.
The bank maintains that transactions clear the account at the bank's discretion, as is disclosed in the deposit agreement. [10]
Customers can incur these fees even with ATM or debit card transactions; the bank employs the same practice even with electronic transactions. Compounding the issue, the bank authorizes transactions in such a way that one debit card purchase - with funds that were available at the time of that purchase - can trigger multiple overdraft fees.
When customers make debit card purchases through any modern bank, the charge is immediately deducted from their available balance. Technically, this is just a hold on the funds; the charge is not deducted from the true balance until the merchant settles the transaction with the bank. At Bank of America, if the merchant does not settle within three business days, the funds are once again made available for spending. Thus, the same money can be spent twice. When the merchant does settle the transaction, these funds are again deducted, even if this overdraws the account, which can result in an overdraft fee.
Here's an example: A customer has $100 in her account. On Tuesday, using her debit card, she buys coffee for $3, a small amount of gas for $15, and $25 worth of groceries. The $43 she spent is immediately deducted, and her available balance decreases to $57. If Tuesday's merchants fail to settle their transactions before Friday, the $43 shows up on the account as available, bringing her account back to $100. On Saturday her ATM and online balance tells her she has $100 available, and she withdraws this $100 from an ATM. As of Sunday night, her account shows exactly $0 remaining available.
On Monday evening, all three of last week's merchants settle their transactions. Because of the $0 balance, the customer is charged three overdraft fees. The customer is naturally confused, as she had not overdrawn her account when she made any of these purchases, and she never spent more than the bank told her she had available. However, because all four transactions clear on Monday, and the bank clears biggest items first, Tuesday's purchases are all listed after the $100 ATM withdrawal that occurred four days later. The customer is charged three overdraft charges total, instead of one or none.
BofA's response is that their online banking and ATM systems should not be used to determine balance. Instead, customers should keep a written account register.
Bank representatives claim that "Biggest Check First" insulates the Bank from undue risk. By paying the largest items first, the Bank ensures that no loss is incurred on the largest items, and most risky items. Smaller items pose less liability to the Bank, and are therefore paid last. Also, the order in which checks are presented doesn't always correlate with their post time, because their negotiation can happen in a number of ways.
Bank representatives also claim that this benefits customers: larger transactions typically represent more important items on a customer's account (such as a mortgage or rent payment, car payment, etc) and these items are typically paid by check or ACH, which are not preauthorized and may not post if the account balance is not sufficient at the time of presentment. The bank claims that by paying these items first, the bank helps ensure that the customer's most important transactions go through.
The "Biggest Check First" policy is not unique to Bank of America, and is common among other large U.S. banks, such as JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, and Wachovia. It was this policy, in conjunction with the other practices listed above, that prompted the lawsuit. BofA paid a $9M settlement and the lawsuit was dismissed without an admission of fault; BofA continues to process transactions from highest to lowest amounts.
BofA has increased the length of time debit card authorizations are listed as pending in online banking from 1 business day to 3 business days to reduce confusion over the actual available balance.
Online banking security
- Online Bill Pay
- Another relatively new policy Bank of America has implemented is the sending of automated bill payments without available funds -- and the related charging of fees. If previous Fleet or BankBoston customers had an automated bill payment set up but either scheduled the payment for the wrong day or else didn't deposit necessary funds in time, the bank would attempt to make the payments for three days until the money was available, before cancelling the payment attempt. As no money would be transferred unless funding was available, no fees were charged.
- Bank of America, however, changed their policy to send the payments even with a zero balance, even electronic payments where it is clear the funds do not exist. They then charge customers up to $35 per scheduled payment. They also do not then cancel the payments, but continue to re-attempt the payments one more time, meaning that if customers do not deposit funds immediately into their account, they can be charged up to $35 per mistakenly scheduled payment, for up to two mistaken payments, or $35 per incident, where their previous banks would have charged nothing.
- In February 2006 Bank of America also changed their online bill pay policy to send customers' automated bill payments without debiting the payments from their account until the day after they are processed by the payees' bank. This differs from most online banking customers' previous experience with having the funds immediately debited from their account, making online bill pay more in line with mailing out a paper check. Funds are deducted from a customer's account when the payee processes the payment rather than on the day the payment is sent out. This ensures funds are available longer to the customer and not tied up "in limbo" while waiting for processing to occur.
- SiteKey
- Announced in May of 2005, SiteKey, provided by Passmark Security, is an additional login step added to the Bank of America online banking website. If the Bank of America system recognizes the user's computer it displays a small image and a text token previously selected by the user. If the user does not recognize the image the user is instructed to not log in and call a phone number for "Electronic Banking Services." If the Bank of America system does not recognize the user's computer the user is asked one of three security questions that had previously been selected and answered by the user. The bank claims this as an added security measure to help reduce the likelihood of phishing attacks by allowing users to easily verify the authenticity of the server to which they are connected.
- Though SiteKey will by no means render Bank of America customers immune to phishing attacks, it demands a two-way exchange of authenticating information: The Web server presents the user its credentials (your chosen image and text) as a means of proving they really are the bank. Only after seeing the image they have chosen, the bank instructs its users, should they, in turn, present their credentials (user ID and passcode).
- While the two-way authentication is currently an uncommon function among the consumer banking industry, the recognition of the user's computer, or more accurately, their browser, is still done in the normal way using HTTP cookies. Additionally, an Adobe Flash Local Shared Object is added to the user's computer that stores identifying details of customers, such as log-ins, in a way that is said to prevent most customers from finding or deleting them.
- Website redirection weakness
- In April 2005, Bank of America was the target of a phishing scheme that exploited a flaw in the online banking website. Normally, a phishing link that accesses an illegitimate website can be detected by carefully reading the URL in the web browser. One URL for the Bank of America website allowed a second URL to be passed to the Bank of America website for redirection. This allowed the phishing link to access an illegitimate website through the Bank of America website and thereby display a "real" Bank of America URL while accessing the illegitimate site. [11]
Raiding Social Security
In 2004, a California jury decided that Bank of America had illegally raided the Social Security benefits of a million customers. The jury awarded damages that could exceed $1 billion. Bank of America had been accused of withholding customers' direct deposit social security benefit payments to cover debts in cases where a debt is owed to the bank by the customer (e.g.: due to an overdrawn account, various service fees, etc.); this practice violates California state law. The suit claims that Bank of America knew about the law and concealed the facts of this law from their customers. Bank of America counters that it only followed standard industry practice of using monthly pre-authorized direct deposits to cover overdrafts and the like. The case is on appeal.
Secured Card Program
In February 2007, Bank of America expanded a pilot program from 5 to 51 banking centers in Los Angeles. The bank attempted to help people with no credit or poor credit establish a credit history. BOA began marketing their secured credit cards, a program which had existed for some time, as a method of doing this. The controversy stems from the bank policy used to verify the identity of customers. Instead of requiring a Social Security Number, Bank of America accepts applications with a Taxpayer Identification Number, along with two other forms of ID ( driver's license, consular ID, passport, etc.) This method of ID verification has been in place since the October 26, 2001 introduction of the USA Patriot Act and is utilized by all banks for new accounts of any type. The acceptance of the Matricula Consular, an ID issued by the Mexican government through its consular office, exists as a major point of this controversy.
BofA's Ken Lewis has stated that it would be unfair and discriminatory to turn away anyone with the legally acceptable forms of identification regardless of how controversial the practice may appear.
Critics (Lou Dobbs being the one cited in this article) claim that Bank of America's policy specifically targets immigrants who reside in America illegally. [12] Additionally, Fox News commentator Neil Cavuto and Colorado Congressman and 2008 Presidential Candidate Tom Tancredo have argued that the policy could be used by terrorists. Representative Tom Price (GA-06-R) has announced that the Committee on Financial Services will be convening hearings on the methods the FDIC and Treasury allow to be used to verify the identity of a potential customer. [13][14][15].[16]
Missing computer tapes
According to an MSNBC.com story in March 2005, Bank of American Corp. lost computer tapes containing information on as many as 1.2 million federal employees, including Senator Pat Leahy, D-Vt. and other members of the U.S. Senate. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, reported being told that the tapes had likely been stolen from a commercial aircraft by baggage handlers. The tapes contain data including Social Security numbers and account information. The bank issued an apology. A spokesman for the bank said it would be "virtually impossible" for anyone who found the tapes to access the data.[10]
Matthew Shinnick Arrest
Also see the article Clark Howard
In December of 2005, a San Francisco man named Matthew Shinnick was mistakenly arrested at a Bank of America branch when he attempted to deposit a fraudulent check he received from a buyer responding to a Craigslist ad. [17] After Bank of America declined to pay Mr. Shinnick's legal fees, reported to be $14,000, consumer advocate and radio personality Clark Howard publicized the case on the air.[18]
International operations
In 2005, Bank of America acquired a 9% stake in China Construction Bank, China's second largest bank, for $3 billion. It represented the company's largest foray into China's growing banking sector. Bank of America currently has offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Guangzhou and is looking to greatly expand its Chinese business as a result of this deal. Bank of America has also invested in opening new branches in India, particularly Mumbai.
Bank of America operated under the name BankBoston in many other Latin American countries, including Brazil. In 2006, Bank of America sold all BankBoston's operations to Brazilian bank Banco Itaú, in exchange to Itaú shares. The BankBoston name and trademarks were not part of the transaction and, as part of the sale agreement, cannot be used by Bank of America. That, in practical terms, deemed the definite extinction of the BankBoston brand.
Bank of America corporate buildings
- Bank of America Fifth Avenue Plaza in Seattle
- Columbia Center in Seattle (formerly known as Bank of America Tower)
- Bank of America Tower in St Petersburg, FL
- Bank of America Tower in Providence, RI
- Bank of America Tower in New York City (under construction)
- Bank of America Tower in Jacksonville, FL
- Bank of America Tower in Albuquerque, NM
- Bank of America Tower in Hong Kong
- Bank of America Tower in Tampa, FL
- Bank of America Plaza in St Louis
- Bank of America Tower in Richmond, VA
- Bank of America Tower in Miami, FL
- Bank of America Tower in Lubbock, TX
- Bank of America Tower in Los Angeles
- Bank of America Tower in Boca Raton
- Bank of America Center in Houston
- Bank of America Center in San Fransisco
- Bank of America Banking Center in Washington DC (across from the White House; see Image:Bank of America Washington DC.jpg)
- Bank of America Plaza in Atlanta, GA
- Bank of America Plaza in Charlotte, NC which includes Bank of America Corporate Center
- Bank of America Plaza in Dallas, TX
Diversity
Bank of America was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 by Working Mothers magazine. Furthermore, Amy Woods Brinkley, the Bank's Global Risk Executive, and Barbara Desoer, the Bank's Global Technology and Service Fulfillment Executive, were named two of the most powerful women in Banking by US Banker magazine, and were among the "top 50 most powerful women in business," as ranked by Fortune.
Major sponsorships
Bank of America owns the naming rights of several venues in the sports world.
- Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte - Carolina Panthers, NFL.
- Bank of America Arena, Seattle, Wash. - University of Washington men's and women's basketball
- Bank of America 500, a NASCAR race that is hosted annually at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
- Bank of America Colonial, a PGA Tour golf tournament.
Official bank of
- United States Olympic Team
- NASCAR
- Major League Baseball
- Minor League Baseball
- Little League
- New England Patriots, a NFL team
- New England Revolution, a MLS team.
- Carolina Panthers, a NFL team.
- St. Louis Cardinals, a MLB team.
Ad campaigns that run during the Little League World Series and the World Series use the slogan "The Official Bank of Baseball."
Footnotes
- 1 See Above
- 2 See Above
- 3 BankAmerica, Los Angeles, was created in 1923 following a series of Los Angeles financial institution mergers and acquisitions beginning in 1910. The mergers and acquisitions were conducted by Orra E. Monnette and his father Mervin J. Monnette. Following the merger of the Bank of Italy (San Francisco) with Bank of America, Los Angeles, Orra E. Monnette was named co-chair of resulting Bank of America corporation, a seat that he held until his death in Los Angeles in 1936. Orra Monnette also served as the chairman of the Los Angeles (California) Public Library from the mid 1920s until his death. (Sources: Los Angeles Public Library; Los Angeles Times Obituary February 24, 1936).
References
- ^ "Bank of America Reports Record 2006 Earnings of $21.13 Billion, or $4.59 Per Share" (Press release). Bank of America. 23 January 2007.
{{cite press release}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) - ^ http://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=7686
- ^ http://nyjobsource.com/banks.html
- ^ http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0763206.html
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3]
- ^ Bank of America Deposit Agreement [4]
- ^ California Court of Appeal Decision [5]
- ^ Bank of America Deposit Agreement [6]
- ^ http://www.antiphishing.org/phishing_archive/04-19-05_BOA/04-19-05_BOA.html
- ^ CNN - Lou Dobbs Transcript[[7]]
- ^ Tom Price Congressional Office[[8]]
- ^ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,252130,00.html
- ^ http://tancredo.house.gov/press/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=1258
- ^ Fox News - Report: Bank of America's New Credit Card Targets Illegal Immigrants [9]
- ^ Lazarus, David (2006-08-30). "Check from a scammer bounces victim into jail". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2006-10-05.
{{cite news}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) - ^ Howard, Clark. "What happened next..." Retrieved 2006-10-05.
- Bonadio, Felice A. A.P. Giannini: Banker of America. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1994.
- Hector, Gary. Breaking the Bank: The Decline of BankAmerica. Boston: Little, Brown, 1988.
- James, Marquie and Bessie. Biography of a Bank: The Story of Bank of America N.T.&S.A. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1954.
- Johnston, Moira. Roller Coaster: The Bank of America and the Future of American Banking. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1990.
- Lampert, Hope. Behind Closed Doors: Wheeling and Dealing in the Banking World. New York: Atheneum, 1986.
- Monnette, Orra Eugene. Personal Papers Collection. Los Angeles Public Library (Main), Los Angeles California.
- Nash, Gerald G. A.P. Giannini and the Bank of America. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992.
- Yockey, Ross. McColl: The Man with America's Money. Atlanta: Longstreet Press, 1999.
- Ahmed, Azam and Demirjian, Karoun. Credit offered to illegal residents., Chicago Tribune, Feb. 15, 2007.
- Boyle, Matthew. The Dirty Half-Dozen: America's Worst Boards For those who track bad corporate. Fortune, May 14, 2001.
See also
- Banc of America Securities, Bank of America's investment banking division
- FleetBoston
- MBNA
- List of bank mergers in United States
- Bank of America Corporate Center (Charlotte HQ)
- Bank of America Center (Houston)
- Bank of America Center (San Francisco)
- Bank of America Plaza (Atlanta)
- Bank of America Plaza (Dallas)
- Bank of America Tower, New York City
- Bank of America Tower (Miami)
- Bank of America Plaza (St. Louis)
- Bank of America Canada
- Bank of America (Asia)
- Bank of America 500
Data
External links
- Bank of America homepage
- Consumer Complaint Form, Federal Trade Commission
- For more information about bank market share, see the FDIC's web site, which includes historical data
- Bank of America invests in China BBC.com
- NationsBank settles check-cashing policy lawsuit CNN. November 10, 1999.
- Bank Of America settles Enron lawsuit for $69m Guardian.co.uk. July 3, 2004.
- Jury awards Bank of America customers up to $1 billion for illegally raiding Social Security benefits of one million customers Sfgate.com. February 26, 2004.
- Bank of America Reports Record Second Quarter Earnings Bank of America. 17 July 2006.