Bank of America

Before 1998, the Bank of America organization that exists today was known simply as NationsBank. NationsBank of Charlotte, North Carolina acquired San Francisco-based BankAmerica to form one huge conglomerate, called Bank of America. Bank of America is consistently growing scooping up historical banks across the United States, to consolidate into the Bank of America as we know it.

By the placement of a series of bad loans in the Third World, particularly in Latin America, between 1986 and 1987, Bank of America was dealt huge losses. By the 1987 stock market crash, Bank of America's share price had fallen to $8, and the companies future was in distress. 1992 marked its miraculous rebound to become one of the biggest gainers of that half-decade. In the same year, Bank of America acquired its California rival, Security Pacific Corporation and its subsidiaries that went with it.
This was, at the time, the largest bank acquisition in history. At this point, Bank of America was looking to be one of the largest Banks in America. Federal regulators, however, forced the sale of Security Pacific's Washington subsidiary, Rainier Bank, as the combination of two companies; Seafirst and Rainier would have given Bank of America too large a share of the market in that state. Later that year, BankAmerica expanded into Nevada by acquiring Valley Bank of Nevada.

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, the deal was structured as merger with NationsBank renamed to Bank of America Corporation..
Following the US$64.8 billion acquisition of BankAmerica by NationsBank, the resulting Bank of America had combined assets of US$570 billion, as well as 4,800 branches in 22 states.

In Recent News

In June of 2005, Bank of America announced the purchase of credit card mogul MBNA for $35 billion in cash and stock

On 20 November 2006, Bank of America purchased The United States Trust Company for $3.3 billion, from the Charles Schwab Corporation.

Bank of America has been involved in a number of controversial issues. Many of its policies have become heavily criticized; "biggest check first" check clearing, overdraft fee policies, credit card application policy, and early account closures.