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Citigroup and Bank of America Comparison

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Citigroup and Bank of America in Comparison

Written by Lars Nielsen

Citigroup and Bank of America, numbers eight and nine, respectively on the Fortune 500 list are two of the nations largest banking institutions. Together these two organizations generated over 263 billion dollars in revenue in 2007. Citigroup was formed in 1998, a culmination of ten separate businesses into a 146 billion dollar organization. In 1812, New York State charters City Bank of New York, by 1894; City Bank had changed its name to National City Bank of New York and become the largest bank in the United States. In 1919 City Bank becomes the first U.S. bank to accumulate 1 billion dollars in assets. In 1974 National City changes its name to Citicorp to better suit its global businesses. By 1996 Citicorp was the again the largest banking institution in the United States and was the largest issuer and servicer of credit cards in the world. In 1998 Citicorp and Travelers Group merged their talents to become Citigroup Inc. and in 2006 Citigroup had over 89 billion dollars in revenues. A company as large as Citigroup, with such a diverse business structure will have areas where risk is a factor that can stifle the development of the business. Economic conditions can have a adverse affect on Citigroup’s holdings, considering their holdings in fixed income, currency, commodity and equity markets. The revenue generated from these portfolios is directly affected by economic conditions. These conditions also affect interest rates, unemployment and consumer confidence, all of which are can affect the ability to create revenue. Competition is also another risk factor that can have an affect on Citigroup’s ability to generate revenue. Many financial institutions merge together in order to offer a wider variety of products and services at competitive prices. With the merger of financial institutions the global area becomes smaller and the ability to gain a wider customer base becomes much easier. Institutions that were not depository have the ability, because of technology, to take deposits and become an additional competitor. International positions can also add unfavorable risk toward financial institutions. Politics and diplomatic developments, currency fluctuation, nationalization and legislation all affect the ability to do business in foreign countries. Trade in other countries and can be more volatile and less liquid preventing the removal of assets in tough times for reinvestment. Citigroup on the other-hand generated over 146 billion dollars in 2007. Currently Citigroup is made up of 12 different companies ranging from financial services to mortgages to credit cards to investment bank research. Citigroup has over 325,000 employees in over 100 countries with over 200 million customer accounts. Revenues have grown for Citigroup year after year. With revenue in 2003 of 71 billion 83 billion in 2005 and in 2007 at 146 billion, Citigroup has the highest revenues of any financial firm on the Fortune 500 list. However, number nine on the Fortune 500 list is Bank of America who generated over 117 billion dollars in revenue in 2007. Bank of America gets it roots back in 1784. Some of the first members of the bank were Paul Revere, Henry Knox and John Hancock. In the early 1900’s, a bank by the name of Bank of Italy had been doing business in California and doing quite well with a banking system of branches, something new to banking at the time. In 1929, Bank of America, Los Angeles, merges with Bank of Italy to become BankAmerica (Bank of America, 2008). With the addition of checking technologies such as automatic check processing, account numbers and Magnetic Ink Character Recognition, Bank America quickly became the world’s largest bank by the 1970’s. In 1997 BankAmerica was purchased by NationsBank and became Bank of America. Since 1998 Bank of America has acquired a number of companies to solidify their position in the financial services world. Some of those acquisitions include:
2004 – National Processing Company
2004 – FleetBoston Financial
2005 – MBNA
2006 – ABN North America and LaSalle Bank Corporation
2008 – Countrywide Financial (number 91 of Fortune 500) With all of these acquisitions there are still risks that face the organization. Bank of America, much like Citigroup is affected by changes in the economic environment. Unemployment, changes in interest rates and credit restrictions are all factors that can prevent the growth of Bank of America. Currently Bank of America has pending legal issues due to the partnership with Visa and MasterCard credit services. Visa and MasterCard are part of lawsuits that claim they unlawfully tied acceptance of debit cards to acceptance of credit cards. Also, the lawsuit claimed banks like Bank of America could only use Visa or MasterCard credit services for all needs. American Express and Discover cards filed suit as well. Risks such as these can have adverse affects on the ability of Bank of America to introduce new ways of generating capital in the long term. Citigroup and Bank of America are the nation/s two largest financial firms, servicing over 200 million customer world wide. Providing services ranging from retail banking, to mortgages to investments banking these organizations are an integral part of the nation’s economy and continued success.

References

Bank of America. (2008). Wikipedia. Retrieved February 3, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_America

Citigroup. (2007). www.citigroup.com. Retrieved February 3, 2008, from www.citigroup.com/citigroup/fin/k06c.pdf

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