1. INTRODUCTION
Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bank of America is one of the world’s biggest financial institutions. It functions in all 50 states (plus the District of Columbia) and is in more than 40 countries in the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. (“Bank of America SWOT Analysis,” p.3)
Bank of America (or BoA) serves an extensive range of customers ranging from “individual consumers, small- and middle-market businesses, institutional investors, large businesses and governments with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services.” (“Bank of America SWOT Analysis,” p.4)
2. HISTORY
I. BANK OF ITALY
In October of 1904, Amadeo Giannini
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State and Federal laws were confusing, and the advantages possibly offered by branch banks to depositor, barrower, and stakeholder were argued. Further more, old banking laws stood against financial innovation, and Giannini had to find ways that beat the system and be ahead. These factors lead to innovation in the banking industry, as Giannini found ways that made him ahead of the system. At a time when most banks made large loans, Giannini’s Bank of Italy made loans of as little as $25. Most banks at the time did not make loans of less than $100, as they believed such small transactions are not worth the trouble. (James, James, 2002)
II. 1906 SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE
On the morning of April 18, 1906, an earthquake measuring 8.3 on the Richter scale hit the San Francisco area. Because of the devastating earthquake, fires started erupting as an after effect of the earthquake, thus destroying the city. Of the almost 40 banks in the San Francisco area, only Giannini’s Bank of Italy chiefly catered to lower income personals who were turned away by most big banks. (Kurzman, p.29)
After the 1906 earthquake and fire, Bank of Italy was the first bank to reopen in the area, thanks to Giannini, who made sure assets were not lost. This helped to distinguish the bank from
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SEPTEMBER 14, 2008: BOA BUYS MERRILL LYNCH
On September 14, 2008, Merrill Lynch, a wealth management company, agreed to sell itself to Bank of America for about $50 billion to help ease the financial troubles within the company. This transaction facilitated in producing an establishment that is in the upper tier of this country’s financial establishments. (Sorkin, 2008)
5. ETHICAL STANDARDS AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
I. 2014 GLOBAL CSR
In 2014, Bank of America established a Global CSR Committee in order to form a discussion concerning developing CSR matters raised by different stakeholders raging from advocates, regulators, and influencers. The committee works towards creating a more transparent and appropriate establishment for today’s world. In addition to that, the committee will work with different groups in order to achieve goals, such as Low Carbon Banking Group, the GWIM Environmental/Social/Governance Council, and the Global Diversity and Inclusion Council (“Bank of America Corporate,” 2013).
II. BANK OF AMERICA’S FIVE CORE PRINCIPLES
1) Customer driven
2) Great place to work
3) Manage
With differing economies and the growth of specie and paper money, Brands argues that the basis of knowledge about the money system of this time lays a foundation for how Carnegie, Rockefeller, and others were able to manipulate the market and gain wealth. Leading into price manipulation by those in corporate
The year 2008 was a very scary one for anyone involved in the US stock market. Due to subprime lending, and cheap mortgages, the housing market became grossly overinflated. Naturally, as with a balloon that’s filled too much, it “popped”. The resulting collapse of the housing bubble had severe implications for the rest of the US economy, housing, and related industries such as lumber, construction, and realty all came crashing down, and the people employed in those fields soon found themselves out of work. As with the stock market crash of 1929, fear of the economic instability caused people to pull their money out of any investments they had. This can be a problem for a healthy bank, being unable to supply the money people are requesting if it’s tied up in loans. However, this would prove to be an even bigger problem if the money never existed in the first place, and would take down one of the largest scams in American history.
The Bank of New York played a major role in the economic growth in the New York metropolitan area. The Bank was also involved with the growth of transportation. The construction of the Morris Canal in New Jersey and the Erie Canal in New York were partially funded by the Bank, which also provided financing to the steamboat companies that benefited from these waterways. Through investments in nearly every railroad and utility, as well as in the construction of the New York City subway system, the Bank of New York continued to provide vital capital to the expanding American economy. However, far more emphasis was given to conservative practices and retaining the confidence of our customers. That policy enabled the bank to survive the economic turmoil of the early twentieth century.
Congress also dealt with the business owners asking for reimbursements from their lost properties (National Archives, 2016). After a year and a half of the disaster, the city spent $90 million on reconstruction (“Quick facts about the 1906 earthquake and fires,” 2008).
At 5:12 a.m. on April 18th, 1906, the California city of San Francisco was awoken by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Chaos erupted with the earthquake leading to fire break outs throughout San Francisco (Cameron and Gordon. Pgs 69-73).The earthquake and the resulting fires caused destruction to majority of the city with buildings crumbling and igniting into flames. Many people died along with thousands and thousands of people being left homeless. This devastating earthquake left the city and United States in a financial crisis. Although the 1906 earthquake was one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, the city of San Francisco was able to overcome these substantial physical, social and economic impacts it had.
The San Francisco Earthquake commenced at five thirteen o’clock in the morning, with the epicenter offshore of San Francisco. The city carried more than 400,000 people during this event (Earthquake of 1906, 1). Most of the
The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake hit the Northern California coastline. The San Andreas fault shook 296 miles of the coast causing major damage throughout San Francisco, destroying about 80% of the city. Fires broke out throughout the city that lasted for several days. This was one of the worst Earthquakes recorded in history, killing 3,000 people.("The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake")
Because of the damage to the city, the people around the affected area had to move elsewhere, but they were killed off due to the firestorms; the remaining survivors attempted to rebuild the city. They got help from foreign lands, which were willing to help by loaning and donating money. With donated money, they were able to rebuild homes and to restore the land. In addition to getting help from foreign lands, they worked internally to help their own nation. The survivors of the caustic disaster took loans from the national bank, which made the economy flourish. Even though the people worked amongst themselves and helped each other, the g...
Flawed financial innovations: the implementation of innovations in investment instruments such as derivatives, securitization and auction-rate securities before markets. The indispensable fault in them is that it was difficult to determine their prices. “Originate to distribute securities” was substituted by securitization which facilitated the increase in ...
In October of 1929, the American economy took a huge hit from the stock market crash. Since so much people had invested their money and time in the banks, when the banks closed many had lost all of their money and were in the deep poverty. Because of this, one of my first actions of the New Deal was the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Every bank in the United States had to abide by this rule. This banking program I launched not only ensured the safety and protection of deposits made my users of banks, but had also restored America’s faith in banks, causing people to once again use banks which contributed in enriching the economy. Another legislation I was determined to get passed...
On the night of April 18, 1906, the whole town was woken by erratic shaking. Although the earthquake lasted under a measly minute, it caused significant damage. Many fires started all throughout the city; San Francisco burned in turmoil.
At the time, there were not adequate facilities available to meet the demand for additional funds. Bank’s reserves of money were stored around the nation at 50 locations. The reserves were not able to be shifted quickly to the areas that were experiencing increases in withdraw demand. The immobility of reserves only added another element to the financial panic (Schlesinger pp. 41). The credit situation would become tense. Since the banks coul...
Howells, Peter., Bain, Keith 2000, Financial Markets and Institutions, 3rd edn, Henry King Ltd., Great Britain.
A corporations CSR should be shaped in order to fit the goals of the corporation, although every corporation’s CSR should differ, since most have different goals and different communities behind them. The CSR should be molded into fitting the corporation’s goals in order to make it easier on the corporation in giving back to the community while achieving its goals. For example, a corporation located in a desert wishes to be more efficient, by reducing water usage it is not only creating lower costs, which result in higher revenue, but also helps the community by not taking up so much water. Taking this into consideration, it is critical that the corporation goals and values are established and clear throughout the corporation, they should be developed by the board or directors and CEO, and the highest managerial level should stress their importance to the rest of the corporation. By making the goals and values at the top branch of the corporate hierarchy, it will be simpler for the corporates community to develop in order to nurture those goals and values. Therefore, a corporation can reach the “shared-value,” a value for both its shareholders and community in a simpler manner that can result benefiting the corporation in the end as well. Throughout the article many examples are given of actual corporations that have benefited and changed their CSR in order to fit their goals, therefore, providing solid proof that these methods work. Nevertheless, as acknowledged by the author’s themselves, most of the corporations taken into consideration where one’s that Harvard CSR students were employed
Studying Banking and Finance at University of St.Gallen will help me further increase my proficiency of corporate finance and financial markets. The in-depth research of specific topics, as well as a comprehensive curriculum, is a possibility for me to focus on my topic of interest ...