Bank of America Corporation
Company History
Bank of America History: Founding, Growth & Key Milestones
Founded 1904 in San Francisco, California
When was Bank of America founded?
Bank of America was founded in 1904 in San Francisco, California by Amadeo Peter Giannini, making it 122 years old.
- Founded
- 1904
- Founding place
- San Francisco, California
- Founders
- Amadeo Peter Giannini
- Headquarters today
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Milestones documented
- 13 (1904–2025)
- Current CEO
- Brian Moynihan
- Acquisitions
- 6
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1904 | Bank of Italy Founded |
| 1906 | San Francisco Earthquake Response |
| 1930 | Bank of Italy Renamed Bank of America |
| 1958 | BankAmericard Introduced |
| 1998 | NationsBank and BankAmerica Merge |
| 2006 | MBNA Merger Completed |
| 2008 | Countrywide Acquisition Approved |
| 2008 | Merrill Lynch Acquisition Approved |
| 2014 | Mortgage Settlements With the Justice Department and FHFA |
| 2018 | Erica Launched |
| 2023 | CFPB and OCC Orders on Fees, Rewards and Accounts |
| 2025 | $113.1B FY2025 Revenue |
| 2025 | Co-Presidents Named |
- Where was Bank of America founded?
- Bank of America was founded in San Francisco, California in 1904.
- Who founded Bank of America?
- Bank of America was founded by Amadeo Peter Giannini.
- When did Bank of America start?
- Bank of America was founded in 1904.
- How old is Bank of America?
- Bank of America is 122 years old as of 2026.
Founding Story
In 1904, Amadeo Peter Giannini, the son of Italian immigrants, was furious that the major banks in San Francisco refused to lend money to working-class immigrants and small farmers. He decided to open his own bank in a converted saloon, calling it the 'Bank of Italy'. His strategy was radical: he lent small amounts of money based entirely on character, not large collateral. When the 1906 earthquake destroyed San Francisco, Giannini rescued his bank's gold, set up a desk on the docks, and immediately began lending money to anyone who wanted to rebuild, which fixed the bank's reputation as the lender that stayed open.
Founders
Amadeo Peter Giannini
Bank of America was founded by A. P. Giannini, the San Jose-born son of Italian immigrants. In 1904 he opened the Bank of Italy in a converted saloon in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood. His aim was unusual for the time: to lend to working people. Commercial banks then served corporations and wealthy individuals and largely ignored farmers, immigrants and small business owners, who often had to borrow from loan sharks. Giannini took deposits from working-class immigrants and made small loans based on character instead of collateral. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake made his reputation. While the larger banks could not open vaults that were still too hot from the fires, Giannini had moved the Bank of Italy's reserves out of the city, hiding the gold under crates of oranges on a horse-drawn wagon. Within days he set up a desk on the docks and lent residents money to rebuild. Giannini also pioneered branch banking. He believed a network of small local branches across California would give a steadier deposit base than a single head office, and he kept expanding it despite opposition from Wall Street and federal regulators. On November 1, 1930 the Bank of Italy changed its name to Bank of America, and by Giannini's death in 1949 the bank claimed more than 500 branches and $6 billion of assets. Education: Heald College. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).
Key Milestones
Bank of Italy Founded
A.P. Giannini founded the Bank of Italy in San Francisco to expand access to banking for immigrants, wage earners, and small merchants. The founding mattered because it made mass-market deposits and small loans the center of the future franchise rather than a side business.
Source: about.bankofamerica.comSan Francisco Earthquake Response
After the 1906 earthquake, Giannini resumed lending while much of San Francisco's banking system was disrupted. The response turned emergency access to credit into lasting customer trust and became a defining story in the bank's retail identity.
Source: occ.treas.govBank of Italy Renamed Bank of America
The Bank of Italy changed its name to Bank of America on November 1, 1930. The rebrand reflected a wider consumer and business ambition beyond the original immigrant-community label.
Source: occ.treas.govBankAmericard Introduced
Bank of America introduced BankAmericard in 1958, a revolving-credit card that later became part of the Visa system. The product tied the bank to modern consumer credit, merchant acceptance, and payment-network economics.
Source: about.bankofamerica.comNationsBank and BankAmerica Merge
The 1998 merger of Charlotte-based NationsBank and San Francisco's BankAmerica created the first coast-to-coast U.S. bank under the Bank of America name. It also shifted the modern company's headquarters center to Charlotte.
Source: about.bankofamerica.comMBNA Merger Completed
The MBNA merger expanded the card business to more than 40M active accounts and nearly $140B in managed balances, according to the company's January 2006 release. That size made cards a more important part of consumer banking revenue and risk.
Source: investor.bankofamerica.comCountrywide Acquisition Approved
The Federal Reserve approved Bank of America's acquisition of Countrywide in June 2008. The deal added mortgage scale but later became a costly warning about buying distressed loan portfolios during a housing crisis.
Source: federalreserve.govMerrill Lynch Acquisition Approved
The Federal Reserve approved the acquisition of Merrill Lynch in November 2008. Although the integration was controversial, Merrill became central to the company's wealth-management and investment-banking fee base.
Source: federalreserve.govMortgage Settlements With the Justice Department and FHFA
Bank of America agreed in August 2014 to a $16.65B settlement with the Justice Department over mortgage claims tied to Countrywide and Merrill Lynch, following a March 2014 FHFA agreement with an aggregate payment of about $9.33B. The settlements cost multiples of the Countrywide purchase price and closed the most expensive chapter of the crisis era.
Source: justice.govErica Launched
Bank of America launched Erica in 2018 as an AI-enabled virtual assistant inside digital banking. The launch mattered because customer service, insights, and routine account tasks were moving from branches and call centers into mobile channels.
Source: about.bankofamerica.comCFPB and OCC Orders on Fees, Rewards and Accounts
In July 2023 the CFPB ordered Bank of America to pay more than $100M to customers for repeat non-sufficient-funds fees, withheld credit card rewards and unauthorized accounts, plus $90M in CFPB penalties, and the OCC added a $60M penalty. The orders showed that retail practices still carried regulatory risk fifteen years after the crisis.
Source: consumerfinance.gov$113.1B FY2025 Revenue
The company reported $113.1B in total revenue net of interest expense and $30.5B in net income for FY2025. The result showed the combined scale of deposits, wealth management, cards, payments, global banking, and markets.
Source: sec.govCo-Presidents Named
On September 12, 2025 Bank of America named Dean Athanasia and Jim DeMare Co-Presidents and gave Chief Financial Officer Alastair Borthwick the added title of executive vice president. Brian Moynihan stayed on as chair and chief executive officer, and the move set out the company's succession bench.
Source: investor.bankofamerica.comMajor Acquisitions
Countrywide Financial
2008Strengthen mortgage business
Merrill Lynch
2008Expand investment banking and wealth management
LaSalle Bank
2007Expand Midwest presence
MBNA
2006Expand credit card operations
FleetBoston Financial
2004Expand regional banking presence
BankAmerica / NationsBank merger
1998Create a coast-to-coast U.S. banking franchise under the Bank of America name
Keep researching Bank of America
Bank of America Company History FAQ
What were the major historical eras of Bank of America from 1904 to 1998?
Founded in 1904 as Bank of Italy by A.P. Giannini, the bank survived the 1906 earthquake, invented the BankAmericard credit card in 1958, expanded across California, and merged with NationsBank in 1998 to build a nationwide coast-to-coast retail bank.
How did the 1958 launch of BankAmericard transform consumer finance?
In September 1958, Bank of America mailed 60,000 unsolicited credit cards to residents in Fresno, California (the 'Fresno Drop'), pioneering revolving credit balances, merchant floor limits, and interchange fees that became the foundation for Visa.
What occurred during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and government TARP assistance?
Bank of America absorbed Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch in 2008, receiving $45 billion in federal TARP bailout investments (fully repaid with interest in December 2009) before navigating years of mortgage litigation.
How did Brian Moynihan execute the 'Project New BAC' operational restructuring?
Initiated in 2011, Project New BAC streamlined Bank of America's cost structure by eliminating tens of thousands of redundant back-office roles, divesting non-core subsidiaries, and reducing annual operating expenses by over $8 billion.
When did Bank of America launch its AI virtual financial assistant Erica?
Bank of America launched Erica nationwide in 2018, becoming the first major bank to deploy an AI-powered conversational assistant to help consumers manage bills, transfer funds, track subscriptions, and detect duplicate charges.
When did Bank of America achieve record net income and market recovery in the 2020s?
Under responsible growth, Bank of America lifted net income to $30.5B in 2025, its highest annual figure, with diluted earnings per share of $3.81, dividends paid of $1.08 per common share, and active digital banking users of approximately 49 million.
What minimum wage commitment did Bank of America complete for U.S. employees?
Bank of America raised its U.S. minimum hourly wage to $25 in early October 2025, completing the path to $25 by 2025 that it announced in 2021. The increase lifted minimum annualized full-time pay in the U.S. above $50,000.
What are Bank of America's primary strategic priorities for 2025 and beyond?
Bank of America is focused on organic client growth inside its responsible growth limits, AI and digital tools such as Erica and CashPro, wealth management flows through Merrill and the Private Bank, expense discipline, and capital return. It is also reinvesting proceeds as low-yielding securities mature.
Was Bank of America originally Italian?
Yes, it was famously founded in 1904 by Amadeo Pietro Giannini as the "Bank of Italy" in San Francisco to provide loans to working-class Italian immigrants who were ignored by major banks.
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