Difference between Bank of America and Bank of America Merrill Lynch

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BoA
BoAML

People often confuse themselves differentiating between Bank of America and Merrill lynch. Both companies, as a matter of fact, belong to the same company: Bank of America. Merrill Lynch is a branch of Bank of America.

Bank of America.

It is often abbreviated as BofA, it is an American multinational bank providing financial services globally. The headquarters of Bank of America are located in Charlotte, North Carolina having central offices in other cities of the world including London, Hong Kong, Toronto etc.

Bank of America is the second largest banking institution in the U.S. It provides two main services known as consumer banking and global banking.

Merrill Lynch.

Merrill Lynch or just Merrill was founded by Charles Merrill and Edmund Lynch. It is currently a division of Bank of America for investment and wealth management. Merrill Lynch provides its services in mergers, equity and debt capital market, landing and trading and payment management etc. It is organized in four geographical regions in the followings locations:

Asia-Pacific Europe, Middle East and Africa Latin America, US and Canada

Merrill Lynch is known for its thundering herd retail brokerage.

Bank of America Bank of America Merrill Lynch
What is it? Second largest banking institution of United States. A branch of Bank of America which specializes in investment and wealth management. However, as from 2019, BoA will no longer use this name for its investment banking and trading divisions. Instead it is now called BofA securities.
Headquarters North Carolina. New York city.
Type of bank It is the main bank. It is a branch of Bank of America.

Venn Diagram

BofA vs Merrill Lynch BofA.png