29 Amazing Facts About Bank of America

Bank of America is the world’s leading financial institution that not only serves individual customers but small, middle-market businesses and larger corporations providing a whole range of banking facilities and other management products and services. It basically provides its assistance in the United States by helping 66 million buyers and businesses. They have almost 4,300 finance centers and approximately 16,500 ATM machines installed. Its digital banking system is superb with 29 million mobile users. All this makes Bank of America a global leader in the banking sector. All its services are very easy to use and its applications easy to manage. The company assists customers through services across the United States, its provinces and roughly around 35 countries.

Besides this common information, there are several other interesting facts that you wouldn’t wanna miss about this award-winning giant. So read on and test your knowledge about this Bank!

Image: Flickr
1. Bank of America or Bank of Italy?

The historical account of the bank of America can be tracked down to a few decades back when it was known by the name of The Bank of Italy. However, there was one characteristic that separated it from all the other banks in operation in America and that was extending its assistance to the immigrants and not only limiting it to the rich American lot. It was taken over by the Nation’s Bank in 1the year 1998, and it was then when it was renamed to Bank of America too. This event became the most prominent bank acquisition event in the entire history. The further events that followed this acquisition led the Bank of America from being a regional player to a national one.

Source: about.bankofamerica..com
2. World’s Largest Wealth Management Corporation

Due to these subsequent acquisitions of Merill Lynch, the Bank of America has now become the world’s largest and most popular banking corporation. The bank prides itself in assisting the top wealth management shares and personal asset shares along with acquiring high net worth clientele.

Source: about.bankofamerica..com, Image: Flickr
3. A Pro in Banking Technology

It is great to know that with all the ongoing payment technologies that have soared in popularity over the decades and with an increasing trend of the internet banking system, it may not be a surprise that Bank of America tops the chart in providing services. America, being one of the fastest developing nations has emerged as a leader in digital technology. It was in 2016 when the Bank of America was given the top rank in the field of net banking and mobile banking. Furthermore, the bank introduced cardless ATMs in the same yea which were more than 8,500 in numbers. According to the reports, more than 20 percent of banking transactions are done through the mobile banking system as compared to the 16 percent in the last years. The increase in people using mobile banking has increased many folds too. Statistically speaking, it has risen almost 13 percent in the past year.

Source: about.bankofamerica..com
4. Bank as a Combination of Mergers and Acquisitions

We can not really credit the whole growth to being organic. As compared to the other major banks, Bank of America grew in size over the past two decades due to the unification of a range of alliances and acquisitions. Interestingly, you would like to question that what happened to these organizations, well, they are now a portion of present-day Bank of America. Here is a list of such acquisitions which have merged with the BOA:

  1. Security Pacific merged with BOA in 1992. (It was one of the largest bank acquisition at that time.)
  2. Continental Illinois National Bank, merged with BOA in 1994.
  3. FleetBoston Financial merged with BOA in 2004.
  4. MBNA merged with BOA in 2005.
  5. U.S. Trust, merged with BOA in 2006.
  6. LaSalle Bank merged with BOA in 2007.
  7. Countrywide Financial, merged with BOA in 2008.
  8. Merrill Lynch merged with BOA in 2009.

Moreover, Nations Bank acquired Bank of America in 1998 but kept the better-known Bank of America name.

Source: about.bankofamerica..com
5. Most Number of Consumer Deposits

Bank of America has a net worth of $635.6 billion in consumer banking deposits as reported on March 31, 2017. This makes it the number one US customer deposit market share. More interestingly, this value is expanding quickly. As compared to the previous years, the retail deposit base has increased by 10 percent.

Source: about.bankofamerica..com
6. Top Mortgage Lenders

It is a surprising fact that Bank of America is one of the top leaders in the mortgage sector in America. As a matter of fact, it not only secures the second position in the market share for retail mortgage origination volume but also the number one position in home equity lenders in the United States.

Source: about.bankofamerica..com
7. Trading for Less than the value of its Assets

During the close of the first quarter of the year 2017, Bank of America had a value of $24.6 per share. It insinuates that the BOA is bartering for almost 3.3 percent less than the worth of its assets. However, this is not really as exciting as the previous years’ discounts and can be seen in terms of buying $1 worth of assets for 97 cents. It makes Bank of America one of the most affordable bank stocks in the area.

Source: about.bankofamerica..com
8. Buying Back its Own Stock 

Due to the coarser valuation of recent years, Bank of America has re-bought millions of shares of their own stock.  There were instances in the past when the shares were traded for less than 55 percent of its own value and hence the bank took a decision to purchase the shares back to boost shareholder value. Surprisingly, Bank of America has has spent 12.4 million dollars on repurchasing stocks since 2013 but in 2016, it crossed a mark of 5 billion dollars alone.

Source: about.bankofamerica..com
9. Not as Profitable as it Seems

There is a reason behind why Bank of America trades for less than the worth of its assets for quite some time now and one reason, in particular, is that it has not been able to create as much advantage as is expected by the investors. The industry marks a line for profitability on a return of equity of 10 percent and a return of 1 percent on the assets. There is no doubt about the fact that the Bank of America is doing better than ever, its metrics of 7.3 and 0.88 percent are not really attractive to the investors.

Source: about.bankofamerica.com
10. Higher Rates of Interest

Since 2016, the increases in the stock price of Bank of America have doubled and are expected to rise continually especially under the government of Donald Trump. As a matter of fact, the total interest yield has begun to grow up and additionally, a 100-basis-point increment in prices could tally a $3.3 billion in net interest income for the subsequent 12 months. That sort of transformation could effortlessly launch Bank of America’s profitability to a satisfactory level and could drag the stock price along with it.

Source: about.bankofamerica..com, Image: Flickr
11. Behind Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate bridge

The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper termed the Golden Gate Bride as “thirty-five million dollar steel harp” when it was inaugurated in 1937. You will be surprised to know that this glorious achievement by the civil engineers was actually funded by the Bank of America. The bridge is 4,200 feet in length and traverses the Golden Gate Strait to unite Marin County and San Francisco.

Source: about.bankofamerica..com, Image: Flickr
12. Nantucket Pacific Bank

Pacific National Bank and M.E. Church Nantucket, MA

The bank, Nantucket Pacific was named so to symbolize the bond between the island of Nantucket and the Pacific Ocean, a cause of the expanding market from the whaling industry. Furthermore, there is only a single bank that can claim to the identification with a  comet, extinguishing a fire breakout, hosting a renowned American author and the increase of prosperity in Nantucket Island. It was on 3rd March 1804 when the Massachusetts senate authorized for the Nantucket Pacific Bank.

Source: about.bankofamerica..com
13. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

It was the beginning of the 20th century when the world welcomed its first feature-length animated film. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs hit the theatres on Feb 4, 1938, and was financed by the Bank of America. The movie broke a record for the sales and started a commotion amongst the film critics for whom a movie like this was one of its kind. This event established a relationship between Disney and Bank of America which eventually led to funding for even more Disney films. The list of films includes Bambi, Cinderella, Dumbo, Fantasia, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, and Tres Caballeros. In subsequent years, the bank of America also funded the development of Disney Land and Disney World which you will read more about in the next point.

Source: about.bankofamerica..com, Image: Flickr
14. Financed Disney Land

Walt Disney’s vision was solely an amusement park for children where the life of imagination would become real. Despite his initial skepticism, he wanted to bring to life the charm of his animated films for the children. Along with Bank of America, which funded the construction of Disney land in Anaheim, California in the 1950s, Walt Disney gave shape to his dreams.

Source: about.bankofamerica..com, Image: Flickr
15. Chaplin’s ‘The Kid’

The best comic star and the comedian of the silent film industry, Charlie Chaplin was universally recognized. “Little Tramp”, an awkward but charming character, was something he was best remembered for. As he turned director, it was his first feature-length film, The Kid, which was funded by the Bank of America in 1919 for 250,000 dollars. You might note that during this period, many banks thought of it as a risky move, but the bank of America had full faith being convinced that the film industry was stable.

Source: about.bankofamerica..com, Image: Flickr
16. Creation of ERMA

It was Bank of America who was instrumental in revolutionizing the banking industry all around the world. In the 1950s, it came up with the first computer used in the banking sector all over the world. The tech-savvy company named it as Electronic Recording Method of Accounting, or for short, ERMA.

Source: about.bankofamerica.com
17. Chicago Scenario

The oldest heritage bank of the Bank of America, The Merchants Savings Loan and Trust Company, contributed not only the expansion of Chicago while its population increased manifolds but also in the reconstruction of the whole town after the events of Great Fire.

Source: about.bankofamerica.com
18. Women’s Bank

Bank of Italy, as we told above, was the heritage bank of the Bank of America in San Francisco, which was instrumental in creating the States’ first bank by and for women. It was called the Women’s Banking Department, which was actually a bank within a bank itself that provided the women with a chance to obtain authority over their own accounts and by means of which they could handle their investments without the involvement of their husbands.

Source: about.bankofamerica.com
19. Modern Day Credit Cards

The nationally licensed credit card program started by the Bank of America was initially called BankAmericard which gradually, due to widespread popularity and adoption by the customers all around the globe renamed itself to Visa. Due to an increase in the economic structure of the economy, it was obvious that the customer’s confidence was increasing too. It was in 1955 that the bank established its first humongous computer application for banking networks. It gradually built up the same application to promote new programs for the credit card holders to look after the customer’s heightened versatility and need for more comprehensive service in purchasing capability.

Source: about.bankofamerica.com
20. American Industrial Revolution

Shawmut Bank is one of Bank of America’s earliest New England heritage banks, that aided to build Lowell, Massachusetts as a nationwide textile center. This was instrumental in making it the starting point of the Industrial Revolution in America.

Source: about.bankofamerica.com
21. National Anthem of America 

An old client and the solicitor for The Bank of The Metropolis, Bank of America’s heritage bank, Francis Scott Key’s popular composition, that subsequently became America’s national anthem and the structure that housed the bank were results of incredible conquests over British strikes when the War of 1812 was in progress.

Source: about.bankofamerica.com
22. The First ATM

The first ATM by The Bank Of America was built in San Francisco at the Stonestown branch during the September of 1969.

Source: about.bankofamerica.com, Image: Flickr
23. Home Banking

With the growth of personal computers entering more and more households, Bank of America seized the opportunity to grant the customers an access to their respective accounts sitting at their homes.The bank launched its first Home Banking services in 1983 through which the people associated with the bank could reach their accounts and perform primary banking functions. In its initial stages, this experiment allowed the customers to have an access for each day of the week from 6 am until midnight.

Source: about.bankofamerica.com
24. Leading to the Internet Banking

The home banking system that we talked about in the previous section, allowed for the starting of the online banking system. In 1994, Bank of America was one of the first banks to launch its presence on the Net with bankofamerica.com. Commencement of this allowed no need for special software systems for customers to access their accounts. Now, they could access the bank 24 hours a day, each day of the week. With the increase in internet usage, the usage of the website increased too.

Source: about.bankofamerica.com
25. Financial Capital of the World

It’s a fact that New York became the financial capital of the globe because of the popular waterway. The waterway rendered a supply channel that supported the Union having victory over the Civil War consequently starting a range of cultural, social and industrial revolutions everywhere in America. The entire thing was funded partially by The State Bank of Albany, Bank of America’s heritage bank.

Source: about.bankofamerica.com
26. Survival of St. Louis

 

The Boatmen’s Savings Institution that we previously knew is actually Bank of America’s oldest heritage bank west of the Mississippi. It was instrumental in helping the growing, striving town of St. Louis to restore its labor class. Being a consequence of which, St. Louis not only sustained itself but thrived notwithstanding infinite tragedies that characterized its ancient archives, which marks a cholera outbreak that eliminated almost 6 percent of the town’s inhabitants, the famous Great St. Louis Fire that ravaged 23 liners and at least four hundred and thirty buildings, and lastly, an economic emergency associated with the advent of the Civil War.

Source: about.bankofamerica.com
27. First Sales Woman

It was during the times when the women were not allowed to vote and when they barely stepped outside their houses to earn their bread and butter, Merrill Lynch created history in the offset of the years when women’s liberation movement had just commenced, by recruiting America’s first bond saleslady.

Source: about.bankofamerica.com, Image: Flickr
28. The Advice That Saved Some

Behind the survival of many of Bank of America’s customers during the Great Depression in 1929, it was the advice written in the letter sent by Charlie Merrill to his clients. It definitely set an exemplar for customer services and that is something which has become the trademark of Merrill Lynch now.

Source: about.bankofamerica.com
29. Wine industry

Ninety percent of the wines in the USA is produced in Northern California. It is famously known as the Wine Country. In fact, this historical epicenter of winemaking, called The California Wine Association was also funded by the bank of America in 1911. Till the 1920s, the Bank of Italy, one of the heritage banks of BOA, became the sole bank in California to extend statewide assistance and could promote the wine business all over the state. This resulted in a sort of relationship that exists even today and will probably continue for the years to come.

Source: about.bankofamerica.com, Image: Flickr