Bank of America Corp. (BAC) is among the largest financial institutions in the world, with roughly $3.27 trillion in assets and a customer base of about 69 million consumers and small businesses. The company's customer𒐪s include individual consumers, large corpo🀅rations, high-net-worth individuals, and governments.

Bank of America is one of the oldest financial institutions in the United States, with some parts of the company founded 240 years ago.

In recent years, it has re📖lied on major acquisitions ♚to expand its reach.

Bank of America now owns Merrill Lynch, U.S. Trust, and BankBoston. The bank also absorbed and renamed Countrywide Financial and LaSalle Banking. Its most recent major acquisition, in 2021, is Axia Technologies, a software company that specializes in medical payment systems.

Understanding Bank of America

Today, the company divides its products and services into eight lines of business: retail banking, preferred services for banking and investing clients, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, Bank of America Private Bank, Business Banking, Global Commercial Banking, Global Corporate & Investing Banking, and Global Markets.

In 2023, Bank of America reported $98.58 billion in revenue and $26.51 billion in net income. It has a market capitalization of $304.29 billion as of May 16, 2024.

Bank of America’s major acquisitions represent efforts by the company to expand into new areas of finance and banking or to increase its reach within existing businesses.

Merrill Lynch

• Type of business: Financial services
• Acquisition price: $50 billion (all-stock transaction)
• Date purchased: Jan. 1, 2009

Bank of America’s acquisition of investment anꦚd wealth management firm Merrill Lynch in 2008 is by far the company’s largest transaction, but it was as much a rescue operation as it was a buyout.

Merrill Lynch’s investment in 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and other risky financial products placed the firm in danger of collapse during the 2008 financial crisis.

Bank of America was forced to take a number of charges and write-offs related to the deal in subsequent years. The costs included Bank of America’s settlement of a $2.4 billion class action lawsuit related to the acquisition.

The Merrill Lynch name survives. The company was founded in 1915 and grew over the next century into one of the largest financial services companies in the country.

U.S. Trust

• Type of business: Private banking
• Acquisition price: $3.3 billion
• Date purchased: July 2, 2007

U.S. Trust Corp. was founded in 1853 to provide financial services for personal and corporate funds, with a particular focus on 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:high-net-worth individuals. It catered to America’♊s🏅 richest families and industrialists.

When Bank of America purchased the company from Charles Schwab Corp. in 2007, U.S. Trust managed roughly $94 billion in client assets and 21,000 employees.

The purchase enabled Bank of America to significantly expand its private banking ღbusiness by🍸 combining U.S. Trust with several companies to create a larger business with $427 billion in total client assets.

In the process of acquiring U.S. Trust, Bank of America dissolved the earlier brand and rebranded the business as U.S. Trust Bank of America Private Wealth Management. This division is now known as Bank of ꩵAmerica Private Ba🌸nk.

Countrywide Financial

• Type of business: Mortgage services
• Acquisition price: Approximately $4 billion (all-stock transaction)
• Date purchased: July 1, 2008

Countrywide Financial was founded in 1969 and eventually grew into the largest originator of home mortgages in the United States. Heavily involved in the subprime mortgage market, the company's financial health deteriorated drastically as delinquencies mounted during the 2008 financial crisis.

Bank of America viewed the acquisition as a way to increase its strength in the home mortgage market. However, the deal greatly expanded Bank of Amer🎉ica’s exposure to mortgage lending just as the U.S. housing market was collapsing.

Thus, Countrywide became one of Bank of America’s (and the financial services world’s) worst acquisitions. Ultimately, the acquisition cost Bank of America more than $34 billion in consumer real estate losses and money set aside for payments to investors, as well as $16.7 billion in a fraud settlement related to Countrywide and Merrill Lynch.

Bank of America dropped the Countrywide name. It is now called Bank of America Home Loans.

FleetBoston Financial

• Type of business: Financial services
• Acquisition price: Approximately $45.5 billion
• Date purchased: April 1, 2004

FleetBoston Financial was created in 1999 by the merger of BankBoston and Fleet Financial Group. The company was based in New England and focused primarily on providing banking services for customers in the Northeast.

With the purchase of FleetBoston, Bank of America became the second-largest banking company in the United States, with 33 million customers and 2.5 million business clients in dozens of nations, As part of the acquisition, all Fleet branches were eventually rebranded as Bank of America locations.

LaSalle Bank

• Type of business: Financial services
• Acquisition price: $21 billion
• Date purchased: Oct. 1, 2007

Bank of America purchased ABN AMRO North America Holding Co., the parent company of LaSalle Bank, from ABN AMRO Holding NV in late 2007. At the time of the acquisition, LaSalle had a substantial presence in both consumer and commercial banking in the U.S. Midwest, particularly around Chicago and Detroit.

Bank of America’s purchase of LaSalle helped to significantly increase its presence in the region, adding 1.4 million retail customers, more than 400 banking centers, 264 offices, and thousands of ATMs in the Chicago area, Michigan, and Indiana.

LaSalle Bank locations were rebranded with the Bank of America name in 2008.

Axia Technologies

• Type of business: Medical tech and payment processing
• Acquisition price: Not disclosed
• Date purchased: April 2, 2021

Axia Technologies Inc. was founded in 2015, making it one of the youngest companies acquired by Bank of America. Axia provides a gateway and terminal software solution for healthcare providers to facilitate end-to-end payments.

Bank of America’s acquisition of a healthcare financial technology company shows that it is attempting to move into the fast-growing medical payments market. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) has made similar acquisitions. 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:In 2019, JPMorgan acquired InstaMed, another medical payments company.

The Bottom Line

Bank of America has grown into the second-largest bank in the U.S. Its recent growth can be attributed to acquisitions, particularly of Merrill Lyncꦡh, another financial giant that fell on hard times during the financial crisis in 2008.