Finance · Profile from Finance Research Companion
Bank of America Corporation
America's second-largest bank and its largest consumer deposit franchise. It is the product of a Charlotte roll-up machine (NCNB, then NationsBank) that took over the San Francisco bank A.P. Giannini founded to serve immigrants, then bought FleetBoston, MBNA, Countrywide and Merrill Lynch in five years. The crisis-era deals nearly broke it. Countrywide alone became the largest source of the tens of billions of dollars in mortgage settlements and litigation the bank paid. It needed $45bn of TARP capital and a federal guarantee commitment, and its shares fell to ~$5 in 2011. Under Brian Moynihan, CEO since 2010, it rebuilt around "responsible growth": low-cost deposits, Merrill wealth management and digital banking led by its Erica assistant. A 2020–21 bet on long-dated mortgage bonds left it with ~$131.6bn of unrealised losses in 2023. In 2025 it earned ~$30.5bn. In October 2026 it agreed a $1.2bn anti-money-laundering penalty.
At a glance
- Founded
- Bank of Italy, San Francisco, 1904 (A.P. Giannini), renamed Bank of America in 1930. Charlotte lineage: Commercial National Bank (1874) → North Carolina National Bank, NCNB (1960) → NationsBank (1991). Today's corporation is NationsBank renamed after the 1998 BankAmerica merger
- Builders
- Amadeo Peter Giannini (Bank of Italy/Bank of America); Hugh McColl Jr. (NCNB/NationsBank, CEO 1983–2001); Ken Lewis (CEO 2001–09); Brian Moynihan (CEO since January 1, 2010)
- Headquarters
- Bank of America Corporate Center, Charlotte, North Carolina
- Ownership / structure
- Public, NYSE: BAC; financial holding company; main subsidiary Bank of America, N.A.; a US global systemically important bank (G-SIB). Berkshire Hathaway was the largest shareholder from 2017 and cut its stake sharply from mid-2024 (reported, verify current size)
- Leadership (2026)
- Brian Moynihan, chairman and CEO. Co-presidents Dean Athanasia (Regional Banking) and Jim DeMare (Global Markets) and CFO Alastair Borthwick, named in September 2025, are seen as succession candidates (reported). Moynihan has said he intends to stay through roughly the end of the decade (reported)
- Segments
- Consumer Banking; Global Wealth & Investment Management (Merrill, Bank of America Private Bank); Global Banking (corporate and investment banking, commercial banking); Global Markets (sales and trading)
- Scale
- Deposits above $2tn (ending deposits topped $2tn in 2025; average deposits ~$2.01tn in Q4 2025); total assets ~$3.3–3.5tn (verify); ~3,700 financial centres (verify); tens of millions of consumer and small-business clients (company, verify current count); client balances in wealth management reported at ~$5tn in 2026 (reported)
- Revenue and profit
- Revenue (net of interest expense) $103.3bn (2023), $106.5bn (2024), $113.7bn (2025); net income $26.3bn (2023), $27.0bn (2024), $30.5bn (2025) (2025 annual report). Q3 2026: revenue ~$30.0bn, net income $6.9bn ($0.91 per share) after a $1.2bn non-deductible AML penalty; ~$8.1bn ($1.08) excluding it (company)
- Government support
- $45bn of TARP preferred ($25bn Capital Purchase Program for BofA and Merrill, plus $20bn Targeted Investment Program, January 2009); an agreed-in-principle asset guarantee on ~$118bn of assets that was never finalised (a $425m fee paid to end it); all TARP repaid December 2009
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- NationsBank–BankAmerica merger (1998); FleetBoston and MBNA (2004–06); Countrywide (2008); Merrill Lynch and the TARP rescue (2008–09); Buffett's $5bn and the debit-fee reversal (2011); the $16.65bn DOJ settlement (2014); Erica (2018); the 2020–21 held-to-maturity bond bet; the 2026 AML penalty
9 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
1998
NationsBank BankAmerica Merger
Merger
2004
FleetBoston and MBNA Acquisitions
Acquisition (two linked deals)
2008
Countrywide Acquisition
Acquisition / failure
2008
Merrill Lynch Acquisition
Acquisition / bailout
2011
Buffett Investment and Debit Fee Reversal
Funding (private capital injection) / restructuring / pricing change and reversal
2014
16 65bn DOJ Mortgage Settlement
Regulatory settlement
2018
Erica Virtual Assistant
AI launch
2021
Held to Maturity Bond Bet
Balance-sheet strategy / failure (paper losses, not realised)
2026
AML Sanctions Penalty
Regulatory settlement