Bank of America Acquisition of Merrill Lynch Essay

Bank of America Acquisition of Merrill Lynch - Essay Example The investing and securities industry in the United States is quite successful with its level of growth before the recession being astronomic over the past couple of years. The country maintained a distinct difference between commercial and investment banks before 1999. This in effect means that the industry enjoyed massive benefits as the banks concentrated only on certain banking activities without competing much with the players in the investment banking industry. On the other hand, the industry includes approximately 3000 companies which have total revenue of close to 200 billion dollars (Hoovers par 1). The investment banking industry is much concentrated with the first 50 major players accounting for close to 90% of the industry’s earnings according to Hoovers (par 1). The investment banks commonly target those who have property which include land, buildings and other fixed assets the main customers being the middle class (Perkins 14). Some of the main competitors of Bank of America in its acquisition of Merrill Lynch include Wells Fargo and Company, The Goldman Sachs Group Incorporated and JP Morgan Chase and Corporation, and Citigroup. Bank of America Merrill Lynch is considered the world’s largest brokerage having at least 15000 brokers and a client asset base of about 2.2 billion dollars. In this regard, it fairs competitively compared to its main competitors both in the investment and brokerage ventures. Bank of America in itself has remained for long the second most capitalized bank in the United States. The bank serves more than 150 countries and has relationships with many Fortune 500 companies (Matthew, Carrick and Dan 14). In terms of total revenue, the Bank of America is 5th largest in the USA. There are several small brokerage firms that are far less capitalized in the US which little threaten the establishment of the Acquisition. The main competitors in the market including Wells Fargo