BankBoston

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

BankBoston was a bank based in Boston, Massachusetts, which was created by the 1996 merger of BayBank and the Bank of Boston Corporation.

It traced its roots back to the Massachusetts Bank, founded in 1784 in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It was the first federally chartered bank in the United States.[1]

In 1791, it financed the first voyage of an American ship from the United States to Argentina. This transaction marked the beginning of the bank's presence in Latin America, which grew with time. As of 1999, BankBoston maintained the status of largest foreign bank in many key Latin American cities.[2] This position ultimately left the bank with significant exposure to the Latin American financial crisis of the early 21st century.

In 1999, it merged with Boston-based Fleet Bank to create FleetBoston Financial. The bank adopted BankBoston's former headquarters as its own. The entity was headquartered in Boston, with branches throughout New England and the mid-Atlantic states. In 2000, FleetBoston acquired Summit Bancorp of Princeton, New Jersey. The acquisition of Summit, New Jersey's largest remaining bank at the time, vaulted FleetBoston into the #1 market-share position in the state of New Jersey and provided critical mass in the Philadelphia metro area.

In 2005, FleetBoston was purchased by, and merged into, Bank of America of Charlotte, North Carolina.

In 2006, Bank of America sold all BankBoston's operations to Brazilian bank Banco Itaú, in exchange of Itaú shares. The BankBoston name and trademarks were not part of the transaction and, as part of the sale agreement, cannot be used by Bank of America. That, in practical terms, deemed the definite extinction of the BankBoston brand.