Bank of America began in San Francisco in 1904, when Amadeo Peter Giannini, the son of Italian immigrants, opened the Bank of Italy in North Beach. Established banks lent to large businesses and held the deposits of the wealthy; Giannini knocked on doors in immigrant neighborhoods, took deposits from wage earners and farmers, and lent on character. After the April 1906 earthquake he rescued the bank's gold and silver and lent from a makeshift bank on a wharf, on a handshake. He then built the first statewide branching system in the country, and on November 1, 1930 the Bank of Italy changed its name to Bank of America. The company that exists today took shape much later: in 1998 Charlotte-based NationsBank, run by Hugh McColl, merged with BankAmerica, took its name, and created the first coast-to-coast U.S. bank.
The Countrywide Mistake
The defining episode of the modern company began in January 2008, when chief executive Ken Lewis agreed to buy Countrywide Financial, the largest U.S. subprime mortgage originator, for about $4 billion in stock. The Federal Reserve approved the deal in June 2008 and it closed that July, just as housing losses accelerated. Bank of America inherited defective-loan claims, investor litigation and regulatory exposure that cost multiples of the purchase price: an aggregate payment of about $9.33 billion to resolve Federal Housing Finance Agency claims in March 2014, and a $16.65 billion settlement with the Justice Department in August 2014, the largest civil settlement with a single entity in American history at the time.
The Merrill Lynch Weekend
In September 2008, over the weekend Lehman Brothers failed, Lewis agreed to acquire Merrill Lynch for about $50 billion in stock. The Federal Reserve approved the deal that November and it closed on January 1, 2009. Merrill's fourth-quarter losses and bonus payments, disclosed around the closing, drew congressional hearings and regulatory scrutiny. The Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program had invested $45 billion in Bank of America, and the company repaid it in full on December 9, 2009. Lewis announced his retirement on September 30, 2009, effective at year end, after forty years at the company.
Moynihan and Responsible Growth
Brian Moynihan became chief executive officer on January 1, 2010. He sold non-core businesses, cut costs, rebuilt capital and settled the mortgage claims, and he made responsible growth the operating rule: grow client relationships only within risk, capital, expense and compliance limits. By the end of 2025 the company held $201.4 billion of common equity tier 1 capital, an 11.4 percent standardized ratio against a 10.0 percent minimum, and the efficiency ratio had improved to 61.65 percent from 63.12 percent a year earlier.
The Digital Shift
With the balance sheet stabilized, spending moved to technology. Bank of America launched its mobile banking app in 2008 and the Erica virtual assistant in 2018. Erica has handled more than 3.2 billion client interactions, and 20.6 million users interacted with it nearly 700 million times during 2025. The bank reported approximately 49 million active digital users, including 41 million on mobile, and clients connected roughly 30 billion times during the year through logins and alerts. The branch network keeps shrinking slowly: down 72 in 2025, to 3,628 financial centers across 38 states and the District of Columbia.
Where It Stands
For FY2025 Bank of America reported total revenue, net of interest expense, of $113.1 billion and net income of $30.5 billion, or $3.81 per diluted share. Net interest income was $60.1 billion and noninterest income $53.0 billion. Deposits reached $2.02 trillion and total assets $3.41 trillion, while Merrill and the Private Bank held $4.75 trillion of client balances. The open question is the securities portfolio: held-to-maturity bonds carried an amortized cost of $522.7 billion against a fair value of $442.4 billion, about $80.3 billion of unrealized losses that has to run off before the money can be reinvested at current yields.
