Business Environment: Bank of America



Business Environment: Bank of America

Bank of America Corporation

Bank of America is one of the largest commercial, financial institutions in the world. It was founded by an Italian A. Giannini in 1904, in San Francisco, under the name Bank of Italy. The modern name was in 1930 after the merger with Bank of America and California. The Bank has actively funded by the U.S. industry and is a leader in the mortgage market and the savings in dollars. Bank headquarters is located in San Francisco and a significant proportion of its activities are concentrated in California. The bank plays a crucial role in placing foreign loans, owns subsidiary banks in New York, in Italy and participated in the work of credit agencies in many countries around the world. There are close long-term relations established between the Bank of America with automotive, steel, aluminum, oil companies, as well as the aviation company Douglas Aircraft, Hearst newspaper chains and the largest agricultural company, California Land.

The Time of Major Mergers

Today's financial environment makes business analysis difficult and hard to predict. Globalization and rapid changing trends dominate business news and affect both Wall Street and Main Street in different yet substantial ways. Bank of America is a very popular topic of discussion in today's world of economics and global markets. The business environment Bank of America currently lives within is rapidly changing and fiercely competitive. Bank of America is seemingly in much trouble today in many different ways. The purpose of this essay is to discuss the business environment Bank of America operates within, and compare and contrast its practices and procedures with its competitors (Gilson, 2001).

The major new acquisition of BankAmerica arrived in 1992. At that time, BankAmerica acquires its competitor California Security Pacific Corporation and its subsidiary Security Pacific National Bank and other banks in Arizona, in Idaho, in Oregon and Washington. Later that year, Bank of America acquired a bank in the Nevada Valley Bank of Nevada.

In 1994, BankAmerica acquired the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Co. of Chicago, which became the property of the federal government after meeting the same problems as Seafirst in the oil industry. At that time, no other bank had the means to replenish the bank. With this merger, BankAmerica Corporation becomes the largest bank in the United States in terms of deposits.

In 2004, Bank of America bought from National City Corporation, National Processing Company, based in Louisville for $ 1.4 billion. The new subsidiary, renamed BA Merchant Services, processes a transaction in six of VISA and Master card. The corporation also offers financial services for companies of transport and health.

In 2004, Bank of America acquired FleetBoston Financial for $ 47 billion. Through this transaction, the Group strengthens its position in the U.S. where it has $ 513 billion of deposits, well ahead of number two JPMorgan Chase-Bank One with $ 353 billion and the number three Wells Fargo with $ 228 billion.

BOA In Twenty-First Century

On June 30, 2005, the group announced ...