a commercial bank unaffiliated with the government . for central bank of the united states see federal reserve system . for other banks of the united states see bank of the united states . bank of america corporation type public traded as nyse bac s & p 500 component industry banking financial services predecessor bank america nationsbank founded october 17 1904 ; 111 years ago 1904 10 17 as bank of italy february 1930 ; 86 years ago 1930 02 as bank of america 1 2 1998 ; 18 years ago 1998 current founder amadeo giannini headquarters charlotte north carolina united states area served worldwide key people brian t. moynihan chairman & ceo products consumer banking corporate banking finance and insurance investment banking mortgage loans private banking private equity wealth management credit cards revenue us 82.50 billion 2015 3 operating income us 21.89 billion 2015 3 net income us 15.89 billion 2015 3 total assets us 2.185 trillion 2016 4 total equity us 256.2 billion 2015 3 number of employees 210 516 2016 3 divisions bank of america home loans bank of america merrill lynch subsidiaries merrill lynch u.s. trust capital ratio 10.2 % 2015 3 website www.bankofamerica.com footnotes references 5 bank of america abbreviated as boa or bofa is an american multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in charlotte north carolina . it is the second largest bank holding company in the united states by assets . 6 as of 2016 bank of america is the 26th largest company in the united states by total revenue . in 2016 forbes listed bank of america as the eleventh largest company in the world . 7 bank of america provides its products and services through operating 5 100 banking centers 16 300 atms call centers and online and mobile banking platforms . its consumer real estate services segment offers consumer real estate products comprising fixed and adjustable rate first lien mortgage loans for home purchase and refinancing needs home equity lines of credit and home equity loans . 8 the bank s 2008 acquisition of merrill lynch made bank of america the world s largest wealth management corporation and a major player in the investment banking market . 9 according to the scorpio partnership global private banking benchmark 2014 it had assets under management aum of us 1 866.6 bn an increase of 12.5 % on 2013 . 10 the company held 12.2 % of all bank deposits in the united states in august 2009 11 and is one of the big four banks in the united states along with citigroup jpmorgan chase and wells fargo its main competitors . 12 13 bank of america operates but does not necessarily maintain retail branches 14 in all 50 states of the united states the district of columbia and more than 40 other countries . it has a retail banking footprint that serves approximately 50 million consumer and small business relationships at 5 151 banking centers and 16 259 automated teller machines atms . 15 bank of america has been the subject of several lawsuits and investigations regarding both mortgages and financial disclosures dating back to the financial crisis including a record settlement of 16.65 billion on august 21 2014 . 16 17 18 contents 1 history 1.1 bank of italy 1.2 expansion in california 1.3 expansion outside california 1.4 merger of nationsbank and bankamerica 1.5 2001 to present 1.5.1 acquisition of countrywide financial 1.5.2 acquisition of merrill lynch 1.5.3 federal troubled asset relief program 1.5.4 bonus settlement 1.5.5 fraud 1.5.6 downsizing 2011 to 2014 1.5.7 sale of stake in china construction bank 1.5.8 17 billion settlement with justice department 2 operations 2.1 consumer 2.2 corporate 2.3 investment management 2.4 international operations 3 corporate affairs 3.1 board of directors 3.2 financial data 3.3 major shareholders 3.3.1 other individuals 4 charitable efforts 5 lawsuits 6 controversies 6.1 parmalat controversy 6.2 consumer credit controversies 6.3 wikileaks 6.4 anonymous 6.5 mortgage business 6.6 accounts of iranians frozen 6.7 investment in mountaintop removal 7 notable buildings 7.1 former buildings 8 see also 9 references 10 further reading 11 external links history edit bank of italy edit main article bank of italy united states the history of bank of america dates back to october 17 1904 1 when amadeo pietro giannini founded the bank of italy in san francisco . the bank of italy served the needs of many immigrants settling in the united states at that time a service denied to them by the existing american banks who were typically discriminatory and often denied service to all but the wealthiest . 19 giannini was raised by his mother and stepfather lorenzo scatena as his father was fatally shot over a pay dispute with an employee . 20 when the 1906 san francisco earthquake struck giannini was able to save all deposits out of the bank building and away from the fires . because san francisco s banks were in smoldering ruins and unable to open their vaults giannini was able to use the rescued funds to commence lending within a few days of the disaster . from a makeshift desk consisting of a few planks over two barrels he lent money to those who wished to rebuild . 21 22 23 in 1922 giannini established bank of america and italy in italy by buying banca dell italia meridionale the latter established in 1918 . 24 citation needed in 1928 giannini merged his bank with bank of america los angeles headed by orra e. monnette and consolidated it with other bank holdings to create what would become the largest banking institution in the country . bank of italy was renamed on november 3 1930 calling it bank of america national trust and savings association which was the only such designated bank in the nation at that time . the resulting company was headed by giannini and monnette serving as co chairs . citation needed expansion in california edit branch banking was introduced by giannini shortly after 1909 legislation in california that allowed for branch banking in the state . its first branch outside san francisco was established in 1909 in san jose . by 1929 the bank had 453 banking offices in california with aggregate resources of over us 1.4 billion . 25 there is a replica of the 1909 bank of italy branch bank in history park in san jose and the 1925 bank of italy building is an important downtown landmark . giannini 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 . in 1953 regulators succeeded in forcing the separation of transamerica corporation and bank of america under the clayton antitrust act . 26 the passage of the bank holding company act of 1956 prohibited banks from owning non banking subsidiaries such as insurance companies . 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 california were forced into a separate company that eventually became first interstate bancorp later acquired by wells fargo and company 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 california . new technologies also allowed credit cards to be linked directly to individual bank accounts . in 1958 the bank introduced the bankamericard which changed its name to visa in 1977 . 27 a consortium of other california banks introduced master charge now mastercard to compete with bankamericard . expansion outside california edit following the passage of the bank holding company act of 1956 bankamerica corporation was established for the purpose of owning and operation of bank of america and its subsidiaries . bank of america 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 experienced huge losses in 1986 and 1987 by the placement of a series of bad loans in the third world particularly in latin america . the company fired its ceo sam armacost . though armacost blamed the problems on his predecessor a.w. tom clausen clausen was 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 bankamerica launched such a bid in the fall of 1986 although bankamerica rebuffed it mostly by selling operations . it sold its financeamerica subsidiary to chrysler and the brokerage firm charles schwab and co. back to mr. schwab . it also sold bank of america and italy to deutsche bank . by the time of the 1987 stock market crash bankamerica s share price had fallen to 8 but by 1992 it had rebounded mightily to become one of the biggest gainers of that half decade . the bank of america tower in new york city . 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 roughly half of security pacific s washington subsidiary the former rainier bank as the combination of seafirst and security pacific washington would have given bankamerica too large a share of the market in that state . the washington branches were divided and sold to west one bancorp now u.s. bancorp and keybank . 28 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 . at the time no bank possessed 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 . bankamerica moved its national lending department to chicago in an effort to establish a financial beachhead in the region . pyramid shaped former bank of america branch building towers over interstate 410 in san antonio texas . 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 north carolina s fast growing nationsbank corporation and to third in 1998 first union corp. on the capital markets side the acquisition of continental illinois helped bankamerica to build a leveraged finance origination and distribution business continental illinois had extensive leveraged lending relationships which allowed the firm s existing broker dealer bancamerica securities originally named ba securities to become a full service franchise . 29 30 in addition in 1997 bankamerica acquired robertson stephens a san francisco based investment bank specializing in high technology for 540 million . robertson stephens was integrated into bancamerica securities and the combined subsidiary was renamed bancamerica robertson stephens . 31 merger of nationsbank and bankamerica edit logo of the former bank of america ba 1969 1998