Bank of America Corporation

Bank of America Corporation
Type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: BAC TYO: 8648 Dow Jones Component S&P 500 Component
Industry	Banking, Financial services
Predecessor	Bank America NationsBank
Founded	1998
Headquarters	Bank of America Corporate Center 100 North Tryon Street Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Brian Moynihan (President & CEO) Charles Holliday (Chairman) Thuong Nguyen (Strategy Advisor) Bruce Thompson (CFO) David Darnell (Co-COO) Tom Montag (Co-COO)
Products	Credit cards, consumer banking, corporate banking, finance and insurance, investment banking, mortgage loans, private banking, private equity, wealth management
Employees	288,000 (2010)
Subsidiaries	Bank of America Home Loans, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Merrill Lynch, U.S. Trust Corporation
Website	BankofAmerica.com

The history of Bank of America dates back to 1904, when Amadeo Giannini founded the Bank of Italy in San Francisco in an effort to cater to immigrants denied service by other banks. Giannini was raised by the Fava/Stanghellini family, as his father was shot while trying to collect on a $10.00 debt. When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck, Giannini was able to scavenge all deposits out of the bank building and away from the fires. Because San Francisco's banks were in smoldering ruins and unable to open their vaults, Giannini was able to use the rescued funds to commence lending within a few days of the disaster. From a makeshift desk consisting of a few planks over two barrels, he lent money to anyone who was willing to rebuild. Later in life, he took great pride in the fact that all of these loans were repaid.

In 1922, Giannini established Bank of America and Italy in Italy by buying Banca dell'Italia Meridionale, the latter established in 1918.

On March 7, 1927, Giannini consolidated his Bank of Italy (101 branches) with the newly formed Liberty Bank of America (175 branches). The result was the Bank of Italy National Trust & Savings Association with capital of $30 Billion, and resources of $115 Billion.

In 1928, A. P. Giannini merged with Bank of America, Los Angeles and consolidated it with his other bank holdings to create what would become the largest banking institution in the country. He renamed the Bank of Italy on November 3, 1930, calling it Bank of America. The resulting company was headed by Giannini with Orra E. Monnette serving as co-Chair.