The Bank of America Corporation (abbreviated as BofA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company based in Charlotte, North Carolina, with central hubs in New York City, London, Hong Kong, Minneapolis, and Toronto. 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. As a part of the Big Four, it services approximately 10.73% of all American bank deposits, in direct competition with Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan Chase. 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.[3] 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 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. Following what was then the largest bank acquisition in history, the Bank of America Corporation was founded. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, it built upon its commercial banking business by establishing Merrill Lynch for wealth management and Bank of America Merrill Lynch for investment banking in 2008 and 2009, respectively. Since both divisions carry the “Merrill Lynch” signage, the former is often referred to as “Merrill Lynch Wealth Management” to differentiate itself from the latter.[4] Both Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, and Merrill Lynch Wealth Management retain large market shares in their respective offerings. The investment bank is considered within the “Bulge Bracket” as the third largest investment bank in the world, as of 2018.[5] Its wealth management side manages US$1.081 trillion in assets under management (AUM) as the second largest wealth manager in the world, after UBS.[6] In commercial banking, Bank of America operates—but does not necessarily maintain retail branches—in all 50 states of the United States, the District of Columbia and more than 40 other countries.[7] Its commercial banking footprint encapsulates 46 million consumer and small business relationships at 4,600 banking centers and 15,900 automated teller machines (ATMs). The bank’s large market share, business activities, and economic impact has led to numerous lawsuits and investigations regarding both mortgages and financial disclosures dating back to the 2008 financial crisis. Its corporate practices of servicing the middle class and wider banking community has yielded a substantial market share since the early 20th century. As of August 2018, Bank of America has a $313.5 billion market capitalization, making it the 13th largest company in the world. As the sixth largest American public company, it garnered $102.98 billion in sales as of June 2018.[8] Bank of America was ranked #24 on the 2018 Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.[9] Bank of America was named the “World’s Best Bank” by the Euromoney Institutional Investor in their 2018 Awards for Excellence.

Citigroup Inc. or Citi (stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate Travelers Group in 1998; Travelers was subsequently spun off from the company in 2002.[21][22] Citigroup owns Citicorp, the holding company for Citibank, as well as several international subsidiaries. Citi is incorporated in NY.[23] Citigroup is ranked 3rd on the list of largest banks in the United States and, alongside JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, it is one of the Big Four banks of the United States.[24] It is a systemically important financial institution and is on the list of systemically important banks that are too big to fail. It is one of the nine global investment banks in the Bulge Bracket. Citigroup is ranked 30th on the Fortune 500 as of 2019.[25] Citigroup has over 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries.[20] It has 214,000 employees,[20] although it had 357,000 employees before the financial crisis of 2007-2008,[26] when it was rescued via a massive stimulus package by the U.S. government.

Fifth Third Bank (5/3 Bank) is a bank headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, at Fifth Third Center. It is the principal subsidiary of Fifth Third Bancorp, a bank holding company. The bank operates 1,154 branches and 2,469 automated teller machines in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Tennessee, West Virginia, Georgia, and North Carolina. Fifth Third Bank is incorporated in Ohio. One of the largest banks in the United States, the company was ranked 366th on the Fortune 500 in 2018. The name “Fifth Third” is derived from the names of the bank’s two predecessor companies, Third National Bank and Fifth National Bank, which merged in 1908.

M&T Bank Corporation is an American bank holding company headquartered in Buffalo, New York. It operates 780 branches in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Connecticut. M&T is ranked 467th on the Fortune 500. Until May 1998, it was named First Empire State Corporation. M&T Bank has been profitable in every quarter since 1976. Other than Northern Trust, M&T was the only bank in the S&P 500 Index not to lower its dividend during the financial crisis of 2007–2008. The bank owns the Buffalo Savings Bank building in downtown Buffalo. M&T Bank also sponsors M&T Bank Stadium, home of the Baltimore Ravens. M&T Bank is the official bank of the Buffalo Bills in Western New York and of their home Stadium New Era Field in Orchard Park, New York. Wilmington Trust is a subsidiary of M&T Bank Corporation, offering global corporate and institutional services, private banking, investment management, and fiduciary services.

U.S. Bancorp (stylized as US bancorp) is an American bank holding company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and incorporated in Delaware.[2] It is the parent company of U.S. Bank National Association, which is the 7th largest bank in the United States. The company provides banking, investment, mortgage, trust, and payment services products to individuals, businesses, governmental entities, and other financial institutions. It has 3,106 branches and 4,842 ATMs, primarily in the Midwestern United States,[1] and has approximately 72,400 employees.[3] The company also owns Elavon, a processor of credit card transactions.[1] U.S. Bancorp is incorporated in Minnesota. [4] U.S. Bancorp operates under the second-oldest continuous national charter, originally Charter #24, granted in 1863 following the passage of the National Bank Act. Earlier charters have expired as banks were closed or acquired, raising U.S. Bank’s charter number from #24 to #2. The oldest national charter, originally granted to the First National Bank of Philadelphia, is held by Wells Fargo, which it obtained upon its merger with Wachovia.

Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company headquartered in San Francisco, California, with central offices throughout the United States.[9] It is the world’s fourth-largest bank by market capitalization and the fourth largest bank in the US by total assets.[10][11] Wells Fargo is ranked number 26 on the 2018 Fortune 500 rankings of the largest US corporations by total revenue.[12] In July 2015, Wells Fargo became the world’s largest bank by market capitalization, edging past ICBC,[11] before slipping behind JPMorgan Chase in September 2016, in the wake of a scandal involving the creation of over 2 million fake bank accounts by Wells Fargo employees.[10] Wells Fargo fell behind Bank of America to third by bank deposits in 2017[13] and behind Citigroup to fourth by total assets in 2018.[14] Wells Fargo is incorporated in DE. [15] The firm’s primary operating subsidiary is national bank Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., which designates its main office as Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Wells Fargo in its present form is a result of a merger between San Francisco–based Wells Fargo & Company and Minneapolis-based Norwest Corporation in 1998 and the subsequent 2008 acquisition of Charlotte-based Wachovia. Following the mergers, the company transferred its headquarters to Wells Fargo’s headquarters in San Francisco and merged its operating subsidiary with Wells Fargo’s operating subsidiary in Sioux Falls. Along with JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup, Wells Fargo is one of the “Big Four Banks” of the United States.[16] As of June 2018, it had 8,050 branches and 13,000 ATMs.[2] In 2018 the company had operations in 35 countries with over 70 million customers globally.[2] In February 2014, Wells Fargo was named the world’s most valuable bank brand for the second consecutive year[17] in The Banker and Brand Finance study of the top 500 banking brands.[18] In 2016, Wells Fargo ranked 7th on the Forbes Magazine Global 2000 list of largest public companies in the world and ranked 27th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest companies in the US.[7][19] In 2015, the company was ranked the 22nd most admired company in the world, and the 7th most respected company in the world.[7] As of December 2018, the company had a Standard & Poors credit rating of A?.[8] However, for a brief period in 2007, the company was the only AAA?rated bank, reflecting the highest credit rating from two firms.[20] On February 2, 2018, the US Federal Reserve Bank barred Wells Fargo from growing its nearly US$2 trillion-asset base any further, based upon years of misconduct, until Wells Fargo fixes its internal problems to the satisfaction of the Federal Reserve.[21] In April 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported that the US Department of Labor had launched a probe into whether Wells Fargo was pushing its customers into more expensive retirement plans as well as into retirement funds managed by Wells Fargo itself.[22][23] Subsequently in May 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported that Wells Fargo’s business banking group had improperly altered documents about business clients in 2017 and early 2018.[24] In June 2018, Wells Fargo began retreating from retail banking in the Midwestern United States by announcing the sale of all its physical bank branch locations in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio to Flagstar Bank.