Bank of America

I have been with Bank of America since Freshman year of college. Bank of America maintains modest savings account rates, but more importantly, also has a branch wherever I see myself visiting. In high school I had to deal with a checking account with a transaction fee at virtually anywhere not in my home city.

Bank of America is a globally recognized bank with a far reaching business practice. BoA also loans a lot of their money out, I'd assume, to make profits. More risky business practices would include: sub-prime business loans, blue chip stocks.

Bank of America was founded in 1988 and profitable for many of the years since then. Before the big credit meltdown in Fall 2008 the stock value was $30.70, while now BoA (NYSE: BAC) is standing around nearly a half of it's former value $12.07. These are ball-park figures, there is no time to crunch the numbers on my end.

The company did receive Troubled Asset Relief Program money, summing $45 billion. Although the evidence I obtained does not cover whether the branches of BoA's business was directly involved with giving loans to unqualified persons, one has to think where BoA lost that $45 billion and why they needed to borrow it.

Bank of America, while showing evidence of cutting back since the recession, will not be considered a significant contributing factor in the fall of the financial bubble by this blog writer. It was the absorber of Merill Lynch, remains an ex-debt holder to the U.S. tax payer, and consistently gives good to excellent customer service.

Disclaimer, though: without tiring myself out in financial statements and news articles there must be some shady business dealings done within this as any other company.