BofA Is Officially Number One

According to a new study by SNL Financial, Bank of America is now the largest U.S. bank, ranked by assets. The Charlotte-based bank has total assets of almost $2.5 trillion. Before the recent acquisition of Merrill Lynch, BofA would have been ranked third. Even though the Merrill Lynch deal has proved to be an ongoing headache as New York's attorney general has led an investigation into the massive executive bonuses ML dished out, at least we can take pleasure in knowing we're number one. Take that New York! And Ken Lewis has won...for now.

BofA knocked off former number one JPMorgan Chase (New York), which is now second on the list with $2.17 trillion in assets. Citigroup (New York) is third with $1.9 trillion; Wells Fargo (San Francisco), which acquired Wachovia at the end of the year, is fourth with $1.3 trillion; and HSBC (Mettawa, Ill.) rounds out the top five with $467 billion.