BOA has roots that go all the way back to loan companies of dubious reputations that purchased banks, merged with larger banks, only to take them over and keep merging till it owned a majority of the stock in some of the most prestigious banking establishments.
Too big to fail? LOL! ;)
One of those banks was the San Francisco Bank of America (where they picked up the name.) This old line bank was a pleasure to deal with and had branches on military posts around the world.