Exploring a Possible Place to Work Bank of America

Business - Companies

Bank of America

In the last half of the 20th century, North Caroline National Bank (NCNB) began a string of acquirements that ultimately pulled together more than several thousand banks, and fashioned today's Bank of America. They have retained their headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, and have grown to be a global business. Through the years, generation after generation, the financial institutions that are part of their legacy have played a role in the development of this country's culture and economy. With a pledge to awaiting the needs of their customers and a drive to spark opportunity, Bank of America continues a proud tradition of improvement, performance and service (Our Heritage, 2010).

Facts and Findings

Bank of America is committed to making opportunities possible for customers and clients by reacting to their financial needs, helping compel economic growth and supporting the neighborhoods where they do business. The company has supported areas across the country by way of its charitable giving, neighborhood development lending and investing in underserved areas, and environmental proposals for many years. The bank is responding to the present housing and economic issues affecting neighborhoods around the globe, including enhancing programs to help customers make well-informed financial decisions and supporting legislative reform to better protect customers (Bank of America Releases First Corporate Social Responsibility Report, 2011).

The Board at Bank of America strongly believes that good corporate governance practices are vital for successful business performance. Their Board has adopted Bylaws, Corporate Governance Guidelines and committee charters, which provide the basis for the governance of the company. Over the past year, they have improved their corporate governance practices in significant ways, including amending their bylaws to permit the holders of at least ten percent of their common stock to call a special meeting of the stockholders. Additionally, they altered their Corporate Governance Guidelines to discuss in better detail their succession planning practices. They also changed the Charters of their Audit, Enterprise Risk and Credit Committees to further improve their various roles in the oversight of risk management. They also agreed to other corporate governance improvements as part of their previously disclosed February 2010 settlement agreement with the SEC. The Board continues to watch corporate governance best practices in order to promote a high level of performance in its oversight of the company and plans to adopt amendments to their Corporate Governance Guidelines and their Bylaws from time to put into practice those governance practices it considers evolving best practices (Bank of America Annual Report, 2011).

Discussion/Analysis

Bank of America has focus in five different areas. The first is that of traditional banking. This included checking and savings accounts. The second area is that of borrowing. The offer both mortgage and auto loans to their customers. The third area is that of investing. The have a good array of investing products including IRA's. The fourth area is that of protection. The bank offers a number of insurance products including life and auto insurance. The last area is that of planning. The bank provides retirement planning as an option for their customers (Bank of America, 2011).

Bank of America maintains their headquarters in Charlotte, NC and has over 6,000 branches across the country. They are one of the four biggest banks in the country. They have clients in over one hundred and fifty nations. They have 284,000 employees working for them in their offices. They also have many contractors and vendors from other businesses working for them which augment this number to above 300,000 in all (Bank of America, 2011).

Bank of America Corporation is ranked 9th on the Fortune 500 list with revenue at $134,194.0 and $-2,238.0 in profits. The high and low range over the last 52 weeks is $9.40-$15.31. Their profit-to-earnings ratio was at a minimum of 9.09 in March of 2009 and at a maximum of 36.67 in June of 2009. The average over the last 5 years is 16.77 (Bank of America Corporation (BAC), 2011).

Bank of America recently reported that it lost $8.8 billion in the second quarter, as more than $20 billion in formerly disclosed mortgage-related charges thumped its bottom line. The loss was the company's worst ever, but in line with the estimation it gave last month of between $8.6 billion and $9.1 billion. The red ink demonstrated, once more, that the nation's largest bank is laboring to get rid of mortgage linked troubles inherited from its 2008 Countrywide Financial acquisition. A large part of the mortgage losses stem from an $8.5 billion settlement publicized last month over investor claims related to Countrywide loans sold off throughout the housing boom (Rothacker, 2011).

Bank of America's shares slipped nearly two percent to $9.53. The shares are trading at a two-year low. The continuing mortgage woes have left analysts speculating if the bank has sufficient capital to absorb future losses and to meet stricter international standards that are being implemented through 2019. In a conference call with analysts, the bank's executives noted that the company's capital ratios exceeded estimates outlined last month and listed ways the bank can meet the higher requirements over time (Rothacker, 2011). They are confident that this is just a phase and that they will get through it and be stronger than ever.

In spite of all the woes that the bank is seeing in its finances it is continuing to grow its business. In the second half of 2010, they launched Bank of America Merrill Lynch's online investing service, mostly to existing customers. Recently Merrill Edge got its first external marketing and advertising campaign in a bid to not only continues to attract its own customers, but also entice other banks' online investors. The new campaign is an all-digital effort with online media placement including Yahoo Finance, MSN Money and CNNMoney.com, but does include some promotion at its banks and ATM's. The online creative hypes the investment insights of Merrill Lynch and the banking strength of Bank of America in Merrill Edge, abbreviated as "ME" (Snyder Bulik, 2011).