The development history of Bank of America

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC; TYO: 8648), whose establishment can be traced back to the Bank of Massachusetts in 1784, is the second oldest bank in the United States. In August 2002, Bank of America Corporation (full name: National Trust and Savings Bank of America, abbreviation: Bank of America), the largest bank in the United States, officially changed its Chinese name from Bank of America registered in mainland China to Bank of America. At the same time, the bank's legal status and its English name remain unchanged. Bank of America explained its reasons: When Bank of America opened its first representative office in Beijing in 1981, it used the Chinese name Bank of America because it was worried that the public might mistake Bank of America for the central bank of the United States.

Bank of America Corporation is a single bank holding company controlled by a California consortium. It was established on October 7, 1968 and is headquartered in San Francisco. On April 1, 1969, Bank of America became a subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation, with all shares controlled by the company.

Bank of America was formerly the Bank of Italy founded in 1904 by Italian immigrants. In the early days, it mainly engaged in the deposit business of Italian immigrants from the Pacific coast states. Later, it gradually absorbed deposits from the middle and lower classes, and provided mortgage loans and consumer credit to small and medium-sized enterprises. The business developed rapidly. In the 1920s, the Bank of Italy had become the largest bank in the western United States. On March 1, 1927, the bank obtained a national bank license in the name of the National Trust and Savings Bank of Italy. In 1929, it merged with the American Bank of California and changed its name to the National Trust and Savings Bank of America.

The strength of the two banks has been further expanded after the merger. During World War II, California was an important arms production center in the United States, and the war brought huge profits to Bank of America. After the war, California became a major production base for aircraft, missiles, rockets and space arms industries, providing extremely favorable conditions for Bank of America's financial activities and accelerating the bank's expansion. In order to strengthen competition, Bank of America actively develops business in terms of service areas and market diversification, absorbs domestic and foreign deposits, and vigorously expands abroad to further expand its assets. The bank's assets and deposits have long ranked first among U.S. commercial banks. It was not until 1980 that it was surpassed by Citibank and relegated to second place.

Bank of America was the financial core of the emerging California conglomerate after the war. In order to meet the needs of competition and development, Bank of America Corporation, a single bank holding company, was established in April 1969. The highest authority of Bank of America Corporation and Bank of America is a board of directors jointly established by the two companies. The board of directors has committees such as execution, audit and inspection, comprehensive trust, corporate policy, employee benefit audit, personnel and salary execution, and nomination committees. Bank of America also has its own Management Committee and Management Advisory Council. By the end of 1982, Bank of America had 1,204 branches at home and abroad, and about 800 subsidiaries and affiliated institutions. In addition, it also had 27 institutions and representative offices abroad specializing in corporate banking business. Overseas institutions cover 77 countries and regions.

The company ranked 21st in the 2007 "Fortune" ranking of the world's 500 largest companies, and ranked in the 2006 "Barron's" ranking of the world's 100 largest companies in respect. Ranked 33rd.

Organizational Structure

Bank of America has a well-functioning organizational structure and management model.

First of all, looking at the overall structure, in addition to the above four core businesses, Bank of America also has 7 support departments including technology, risk, strategic planning, human resources, marketing, product development and quality, and finance. . The division of departments and responsibilities is based on business units, and each business unit implements vertical management;

Secondly, Bank of America does not have a comprehensive centralized management organization at every level below the head office; Each business unit or team makes its own settings according to the situation. They are not subordinate to each other but have a cooperative relationship. For example, Bank of America's first-line outlets, known as stores, are subordinated upward to the personal and small business unit, that is, the retail business unit;

Thirdly, Bank of America's management teams at all levels are lean and efficient. The heads of management teams at each level do not have deputies, or in other words, their deputies are directly the heads of subordinate teams.

The "Six Sigma management model" was originally just a product quality control program, but now it has evolved into a systematic business improvement method system, aiming to continuously improve corporate business processes and achieve customer satisfaction. Bank of America uses this approach to improve costs, services, sales and even all aspects and links of merger integration. In the three years since 2001, Bank of America's profits have increased by billions of dollars by cutting expenses and increasing operating income, and customer satisfaction has increased rapidly. The application of the "Six Sigma management model" in Bank of America has produced huge benefits.