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Bank of America

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Bank of America

Charlotte, N.C.

Assets: $1.378 trillion
Deposits: $807 billion
Stock performance YTD: -26.7%
Employees: 210,000

Bank of America (BAC) has taken more than $21 billion in mortgage writedowns and losses since the beginning of 2007. The bank also acquired troubled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial in July for $4 billion. But the company has raised enough capital to emerge as a strong player in the new banking landscape, ramping up its brokerage business with the acquisition of Merrill Lynch (MER), which was announced Sept. 15. Bank of America operates 6,100 retail branches.