Bank of America

BAC

The Bank of America Corporation (simply referred to as Bank of America, often abbreviated as BofA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, with central hubs in New York City, London, Hong Kong, Dallas, and Toronto. Founded in San Francisco, Bank of America was formed through NationsBank's acquisition of BankAmerica in 1998. It is the second largest banking institution in the United States, after JPMorgan Chase, and the eighth largest bank in the world. Bank of America is one of the Big Four banking institutions of the United States. It services approximately 10.73% of all American bank deposits, in direct competition with JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo. Its primary financial services revolve around commercial banking, wealth management, and investment banking. One branch of its history stretches back to Bank of Italy, founded by Amadeo Pietro Giannini in 1904, which provided Italian immigrants who faced service discrimination various banking options. Originally headquartered in San Francisco, California, Giannini acquired Banca d'America e d'Italia (Bank of America and Italy) in 1922. The passage of landmark federal banking legislation facilitated a rapid growth in the 1950s, quickly establishing a prominent market share. After suffering a significant loss after the 1998 Russian bond default, BankAmerica, as it was then known, was acquired by the Charlotte-based NationsBank for US$62 billion.

Bank of America has been a target of short sellers for a while. The current short interest of 1.19% is roughly at the average of the last 12 months (1.40%).