Bank of America vs BNP Paribas: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: Bank of America and BNP Paribas side by side

1. 1848BNP Paribas

   Comptoir national d'escompte de Paris founded

   Created by decree in March 1848 to restart commercial credit after the February Revolution, with capital from private subscribers, the City of Paris and the State. It is the oldest root of the BNP side of the group.

2. 1860BNP Paribas

   First overseas branches in Shanghai and Calcutta

   The Comptoir opened branches in Shanghai and Calcutta, becoming the first French bank to build a branch network abroad from scratch, later adding Hong Kong, London, San Francisco and Sydney.

3. 1872BNP Paribas

   Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas formed

   The Banque de Paris, founded in 1869, merged on 27 January 1872 with Louis-Raphaël Bischoffsheim's Amsterdam-based Nederlandsche Credit- en Deposito Bank to create the investment bank later known as Paribas.

4. 1889BNP Paribas

   Comptoir rescued after the copper crash

   Losses on industrialist Eugène Secrétan's attempt to corner the copper market forced the Comptoir d'escompte de Paris into liquidation, backed by a 100-million-franc Banque de France advance. It was refounded in June 1889 as a deposit bank.

5. 1904Bank of America

   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.

6. 1906Bank of America

   San 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.

7. 1930Bank of America

   Bank 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.

8. 1958Bank of America

   BankAmericard 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.

9. 1966BNP Paribas

   Banque Nationale de Paris created

   Finance minister Michel Debré merged the state-owned CNEP and Banque nationale pour le commerce et l'industrie (BNCI) to form Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP).

10. 1982BNP Paribas

    Paribas nationalised

    The Mauroy government nationalised Paribas, which adopted its telegraph address, Paribas, as its brand that year.

11. 1987BNP Paribas

    Paribas privatised

    The Chirac government returned Paribas to private ownership in January 1987.

12. 1993BNP Paribas

    BNP privatised

    BNP was privatised in October 1993 under chairman Michel Pébereau.

13. 1998Bank of America

    NationsBank 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.

14. 1999BNP Paribas

    Three-way takeover battle

    Société Générale bid for Paribas, and BNP answered with offers for both banks. BNP won control of Paribas but failed to take Société Générale.

15. 2000BNP Paribas

    BNP Paribas created

    The merger of BNP and Paribas was completed in May 2000, combining BNP's retail network with Paribas's investment banking.

16. 2001BNP Paribas

    Full ownership of BancWest

    BNP Paribas agreed to buy the 55% of BancWest, parent of Bank of the West and First Hawaiian Bank, that it did not already own for about $2.45 billion. The Federal Reserve approved the deal on 4 December 2001.

17. 2006Bank of America

    MBNA 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.

18. 2006BNP Paribas

    BNL acquired in Italy

    BNP Paribas bought Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, making Italy its second domestic retail market.

19. 2008Bank of America

    Countrywide 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.

20. 2008Bank of America

    Merrill 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.

21. 2009BNP Paribas

    Fortis Bank acquired in Belgium

    In May 2009 BNP Paribas took control of Fortis Bank, now BNP Paribas Fortis, paying with new shares issued to the Belgian state and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It also bought 25% of AG Insurance for ~$1.55 billion (€1.375 billion).

22. 2014Bank of America

    Mortgage 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.

23. 2014BNP Paribas

    US sanctions guilty plea

    BNP Paribas pleaded guilty in New York and agreed to pay about $8.9 billion for processing dollar transactions for Sudan, Iran and Cuba in breach of US sanctions.

24. 2018Bank of America

    Erica 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.

25. 2023Bank of America

    CFPB 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.

26. 2023BNP Paribas

    Bank of the West sold to BMO

    BNP Paribas completed the $16.3 billion cash sale of Bank of the West to BMO Financial Group on 1 February 2023, leaving US retail banking.

27. 2025Bank of America

    $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.

28. 2025Bank of America

    Co-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.

29. 2025BNP Paribas

    AXA Investment Managers acquired

    BNP Paribas Cardif completed the ~$5.76 billion (€5.1 billion) purchase of AXA IM on 1 July 2025 and signed a long-term partnership to manage a large part of AXA's assets.

30. 2025BNP Paribas

    Sudan jury verdict

    A Manhattan federal jury found BNP Paribas liable to three Sudanese refugees in October 2025 and awarded $20.75 million. The bank is appealing.

31. 2026BNP Paribas

    Ageas partnership reset

    On 28 April 2026 BNP Paribas Fortis sold its 25% of AG Insurance to Ageas for ~$2.15 billion (€1.9 billion) and renewed their Belgian bancassurance partnership, while Cardif raised its Ageas stake to 22.5%.

32. 2026BNP Paribas

    Arval completes Athlon purchase

    Arval completed its purchase of Athlon from Mercedes-Benz Group on 31 July 2026, reaching a combined fleet of 2.3 million vehicles.

Acquisitions

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