Bank Accounts

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC TYO: 8648 ), Charlotte, North Carolina, is the largest commercial bank in the United States measured in deposits (although Citigroup has higher assets worldwide), and the third-largest company in the world by the 2006 Forbes Global 2000.

On 17 July 2006, Bank of America reported second quarter 2006 net income of $5.48 billion, surpassing that of Citigroup for the first time. Bank of America is the largest American company (by market capitalization) that is not part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Bank of America Corp. recently announced customers may trade stocks online for free in 30 additional U.S. states speeding up the roll-out of a program that roiled the brokerage industry. Bank Of America Online.

As a result of its mergers and acquisitions, Bank of America is now the largest issuer of credit, debit and prepaid cards in the world based on total purchase volume, as well as the largest consumer and small business bank in the United States.

Global Consumer and Small Business Banking is the largest division in the company, and deals primarily with consumer banking and credit card issuance. The acquisition of FleetBoston and MBNA significantly expanded its size and range of services, resulting in about 51% of the company's total revenue in 2005. It competes directly with the retail banking divisions of Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase.

In 1999, a class action lawsuit was filed against Bank of America for engaging in the practice of "Biggest Check First" check-clearing. Put simply, the bank clears checks and ATM/debit card transactions in order from biggest to smallest, with less regard to what time they come in during that business day. The lawsuit claimed that this is done on purpose: that the bank is manipulating the order of transactions to trigger more overdraft fees to collect.

Customers cannot avoid these fees by avoiding use of written checks; the bank employs the same practice for ATM and debit card transactions. Compounding the issue, the bank authorizes transactions in such a way that one debit card purchase - with funds that were available at the time of purchase - can trigger multiple overdraft fees.

Bank of America offers services such as SAVINGS ACCOUNTS, HOME LOANS, MORTGAGES, CREDIT CARDS and BANK ACCOUNTS.

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SAVINGS ACCOUNTS | HOME LOANS | MORTGAGES | CREDIT CARDS | BANK ACCOUNTS.