BankFiesta.com

The Bank of America Corporation of today has undergone a series of takeovers and mergers over the years. A. P. Giannini; the founder of this conglomerate renamed his Bank of Italy as Bank of America in 1930. The organization is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is one of the largest and oldest financial services company in the United States of America. Their total asset worth 12.2% of all American deposits and commercial deposits size make them the second largest bank in the U.S. by measures of market capitalization.

The bank was considered to have survived and emerged a winner from the 2007 global credit crises. But with the acquisition of Merrill Lynch (2008) the bank plunged into high debts. But in 2009(Q1), Merrill Lynch contributed $3.7 billion to the bank’s total profit of $4.2bn.

The Bank offers its services to three distinct customer segments. The largest is the Retail segment (Global Consumer and Small Business Banking). This segment offers credit cards, consumer banking and insurance services. The Business banking segment (Global Corporate and Investment Banking) is the international leader underwriter for high yield debts. It is also the third largest underwriter of equity. In the mergers and acquisitions space, it is the ninth largest in the world. Other services provided by Bank of America include underwriting of capital markets, buying and selling in equities and fixed income markets among others.
Banc of America Investment Services Inc Direct is the investment and wealth management services arm of the Bank of America. They offer direct access to the markets through baisidirect.com. The website provides its users a platform to invest in a variety of instruments like Stocks, Exchange Traded Funds, Mutual funds, fixed income products, Bonds and Options.

Self-Directed Investing and Full Service Investing accounts are the major offerings of the Bank in its wealth management portfolio. The former caters to traders seeking value broking and simple online service without assistance for performance management and investment planning. This service caters to investors who seek solutions like retirement planning, educational savings account etc. Clients are encouraged to take their investment decisions based on in-depth and user-friendly research tools are available online.

On the other hand, the Full Service Investing account offers dedicated financial guidance to those who require personalized investment planning for diversifying their portfolios based on specific requirements, and strategies to manage huge funds. The company offers the services of a financial advisor who guides the clients about investment products and help take sound financial decisions.

The website (www.baisidirect.com) offers simple trading services and comprehensive research tools to its users. Customers can use a single login access to online banking and Investment banking accounts. A single page view of the bank account and brokerage account information is available on user-friendly platforms. The users can instantly transfer funds between deposit accounts and brokerage accounts, helping them avail maximum benefits by not missing out on investment opportunities due to fund transfer hassles.

For the research requirements, the Morningstar and First Calls extensive investment tools are available online. Dow Jones and Reuters provide extensive financial and business news feed on the portal. Other standard services like Current news headlines, Portfolio Snapshots, Mutual Fund Screener, Fund performance indicators, Detailed holdings information, Portfolio Tracking tools are also available. Besides, the S&P Commentaries enhances the user experience. A 5-Star ranked customer service team backs all these services. Other modes like telephonic and broker assisted orders remain to attract the same fees.

The company primarily caters to the requirements of its account holders. But currently, the company is offering aggressive pricing on its broking accounts. This is an attempt to take-on discount brokerage firms. Bank of America offers a commitment of zero commissions for online stock trades.
The conglomerate received US $20 billion through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in January 2009, under the bailout package of the US government. Apart from this, the TARP also provided a guarantee for US $118 billion worth of potential business losses. In the fall of 2008, the agency had disbursed an amount of $25 billion for the bank.

Although Banc of America Securities LLC is based in New York City, its other major offices are also located in San Francisco, Tokyo, Frankfurt, London, and even Mumbai.