Bank of America

Bank of America Corporation is a U.S. financial-services company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It provides banking, investment, wealth-management and capital-markets services through bank and nonbank subsidiaries. Its principal insured bank is Bank of America, National Association. The corporation reports four main business segments: Consumer Banking, Global Wealth & Investment Management, Global Banking and Global Markets.^[1][2]

Corporate structure and activities

Bank of America Corporation is the parent company, while Bank of America, National Association is a separately chartered national bank. The distinction matters because a deposit, a brokerage investment and a share of the parent company’s stock are different financial claims. The national bank takes deposits and conducts banking activities; other businesses within the corporate group provide services that include securities and investment products. Bank of America Corporation’s common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BAC.^[1][2]

The company reports its activities in four segments rather than treating every service as part of a single retail bank. **Consumer Banking** covers services to individuals and small businesses. **Global Wealth & Investment Management** includes advisory and wealth-management activities. **Global Banking** serves business and institutional clients, while **Global Markets** encompasses activities in financial markets. The segments’ results are supplemented by an “All Other” reporting category for operations not assigned to the four segments. These are reporting classifications for the consolidated company, not four separate banks.^[1]

This mix of activities gives the company several sources of income. Lending and deposit-taking generate interest income and interest expense; investment management, transactions and other services generate forms of noninterest income. It also exposes the company to different risks. A consumer loan and a corporate loan both involve the possibility that a borrower will not repay, whereas a trading position can change in value as market prices move. The breadth of the business does not eliminate those risks; it requires the company to manage them across different subsidiaries, products and client groups.^[1]

Historical development

The present company is the product of mergers involving earlier banking institutions. A defining transaction was the 1998 merger of Charlotte-based NationsBank and San Francisco-based BankAmerica. The combined institution adopted the Bank of America name. That corporate history is distinct from the establishment date of the current national bank as recorded in federal banking data: the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) lists Bank of America, National Association as established on October 17, 1904.^[2][4]

Acquisitions during the financial crisis substantially changed the company’s activities. Bank of America completed its purchase of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial on July 1, 2008. Its financial disclosures subsequently incorporated Countrywide from that date and Merrill Lynch from January 1, 2009. Countrywide expanded the group’s mortgage exposure, while Merrill Lynch added substantial wealth-management and securities businesses. These transactions also brought risks and liabilities associated with the acquired firms into the wider corporate group.^[5][6][7]

The acquisition history helps explain why “Bank of America” can refer to more than one thing. In ordinary usage it may mean a neighborhood branch, the national bank, or the consolidated corporation that reports to shareholders. In a financial statement, regulatory record or account agreement, identifying the relevant legal entity is important: the parent company’s consolidated figures include businesses beyond the insured bank, and protections applicable to a bank deposit do not automatically apply to products sold by an affiliate.^[1][2][9]

Consumer banking and deposit insurance

At the retail level, the bank provides deposit accounts, payments and credit products. The national bank is FDIC-insured; the FDIC identifies it under certificate number 3510 and lists the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) as its primary federal regulator. Its status as an insured national bank should not be confused with a guarantee of every product offered under the broader Bank of America name.^[2]

FDIC insurance applies to qualifying deposits at an insured bank. The standard coverage limit is **$250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, for each account-ownership category**. Deposits in the same ownership category at the same bank are generally considered together when coverage is calculated; different ownership categories can receive separate coverage if the applicable requirements are met. The FDIC identifies checking accounts, savings accounts and certificates of deposit among the deposit products it insures.^[8][9]

Stocks, bonds and mutual funds are not FDIC-insured merely because they are obtained through a bank or an affiliate. This distinction is particularly relevant to a group that offers both banking and investing services. A customer’s eligibility for deposit insurance depends on the legal institution holding the deposit and on the account’s ownership and balance—not on the prominence of the Bank of America name on a website, statement or office.^[8][9]

Wealth management, business banking and markets

Beyond consumer accounts, Bank of America’s consolidated businesses serve companies, institutional clients and investors. Its Global Wealth & Investment Management segment brings together investment and wealth-management services, including Merrill. Global Banking covers services to business clients, while Global Markets operates in securities and related markets. The annual filing describes these activities as part of a diversified range of bank and nonbank financial services provided in the United States and internationally.^[1]

The segments differ in what their reported balances represent. A bank deposit is generally money owed by the bank to its depositor. A client’s investments held or managed through a wealth-management business are not, simply by being associated with that business, deposits available for the bank to lend. Likewise, securities-market activity involves positions and services whose risks differ from those of a conventional loan portfolio. Reading the segment descriptions alongside the consolidated statements helps distinguish the scale of customer relationships from the assets and liabilities recorded on the corporation’s own balance sheet.^[1][9]

For 2025, the company reported **$113.1 billion in revenue** and **$30.5 billion in net income**. Those are annual, consolidated figures for Bank of America Corporation, not figures for the national bank alone and not measures of the amount protected by deposit insurance. They describe a completed reporting year and should not be treated as an unchanged measure of subsequent performance.^[3]

Regulation and financial risks

Bank of America’s organizational structure places different activities under different forms of oversight. The OCC is the primary federal regulator of its national bank, and the FDIC insures that bank’s eligible deposits. The Federal Reserve supervises bank holding companies and their nonbank subsidiaries under its holding-company framework. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has also taken enforcement action involving the national bank’s consumer products.^[2][10][11]

Like other diversified banking groups, Bank of America must manage **credit risk** from borrowers, **interest-rate risk** from changes in rates affecting assets and funding, **market risk** from changes in the value of financial positions, **liquidity risk** concerning its ability to meet obligations, and **operational risk** arising from systems, processes and conduct. The significance of any one exposure can change with the composition of loans, deposits and investments and with financial-market conditions. Consolidated reporting is therefore useful for assessing the parent company, but it does not replace information about an individual subsidiary or product.^[1]

Regulatory actions form part of the company’s history. In August 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a **$16.65 billion settlement** resolving federal and state claims concerning conduct leading up to and during the financial crisis. The settlement covered Bank of America and former or current subsidiaries, including Countrywide and Merrill Lynch, and included a $5 billion civil penalty and $7 billion in consumer relief.^[7]

In July 2023, the CFPB announced orders concerning repeat insufficient-funds fees, credit-card rewards and unauthorized account openings at Bank of America, National Association. According to the agency, the actions required more than $100 million in consumer redress and a combined $150 million in penalties to the CFPB and OCC. The actions illustrate a separate category of exposure from loan losses or market movements: compliance failures in the delivery and administration of consumer products.^[11]

Interpreting Bank of America figures

A figure attributed to “Bank of America” needs a defined **entity, measure and date**. Revenue or net income in an annual report ordinarily refers to the consolidated corporation for a specified year. An FDIC institution record identifies the insured national bank. A balance associated with a wealth-management client is not necessarily an asset owned by the corporation, and a corporate total does not state how much of any particular customer’s deposit is insured.^[1][2][3][8]

The distinction also matters when comparing Bank of America with JPMorgan Chase or another financial group. Comparisons are most meaningful when they use equivalent consolidated or bank-level figures from the same reporting period. Bank of America’s four-segment structure describes where it reports operating results; its national-bank charter identifies the entity that accepts insured deposits; and its corporate stock represents an ownership interest in the parent. None of those three descriptions is interchangeable.^[1][2]