Bank of America 2011 Annual Report Download - page 7

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training and career opportunities. In 2011, we placed tens of
thousands of teammates in new jobs throughout the company,
representing opportunities for employees to build new skills
and benefit from new experiences.
Every employee has had opportunities to share ideas for how
we can be a better place to work through Project New BAC,
our companywide program designed to align our resources as
efficiently as we can to better serve our customers and clients.
These changes are not only making Bank of America more
efficient, they also are making it easier for employees to do
business and operate across the company. And, we have
continued to earn recognition as an employer of choice from
national and international publications, including Working
Mother, Military Times EDGE, Black Enterprise and Latina Style.
Our employees also continue to donate their time to their
communities. We believe strongly in the importance of
employee engagement in our communities, and we encourage
employees to take up to two hours per week of company time
for volunteer activities. Collectively, our employees logged
1.5 million volunteer hours (including company time and
personal time) in 2011 and gave to many important causes
through $25 million in individual donations as well as through
the United Way campaign, which raised $34 million for
community needs.
Manage risk well
Risk management is an integral part of our business opera-
tions. Our goal is to set a tone and create a risk management
culture in which every employee is empowered to raise an
issue or express a concern. That means having a well-defined,
clear-cut business model, a strategy that puts that model into
practice, and operating principles to guide the thousands of
daily decisions that are made by managers across the company.
We have taken a number of steps to strengthen and sustain
a strong risk management culture. We have developed a
clear understanding of our risk appetite across all businesses.
This includes seven major categories: credit risk, market
risk, operational risk, compliance risk, liquidity risk, strategic
risk and reputational risk. We are putting specific emphasis
on improving operational risk awareness and execution
throughout the company this year. Finally, we are clear about
accountability — all employees understand their obligation to
speak up if they have a concern, and it is part of our culture
to encourage it.
Manage efficiency well
To be the finest financial services company in the world also
means we must be the best operator — a company that is
efficient and effective, gets it right for customers and clients
and, if an error occurs, corrects it promptly and courteously
every time.
At the heart of our pursuit of operational excellence is Project
New BAC. We completed Phase 1 evaluations in September
2011, covering our consumer businesses and the related
staff functions that support them, approving more than 2,000
ideas employees submitted to improve the way we work for
customers. Many of these ideas are being implemented now.
Through this work, we have a goal to reduce our expenses
by $5 billion, or about 18 percent of the expenses in these
areas, by the end of 2013.
Phase 2 evaluations, covering Global Wealth & Investment
Management, Global Commercial Banking, Global Banking &
Markets and the staff functions not subject to evaluation in
Phase 1, are in progress. Evaluations will conclude this April.
Deliver on our shareholder return model
Ultimately, we will be judged by our ability to generate profits
and by our stock price, which, as I’ve said, clearly does not yet
reflect much of the work we are doing or the progress we have
made. One important measure of our progress is tangible
book value2
, which, at $12.95 per share at the end of 2011,
held steady over the course of the year even as we significantly
added to our reserves for mortgage-related exposures.
Looking ahead
While our results in 2011 were lower than we would expect
in a more normal environment, we are making progress in
rebuilding profitability in all our core businesses. With the
economy slowly but steadily improving, we believe this trend
should continue in 2012.
This year will bring its own mix of successes and challenges,
but our direction is clear. We will continue to focus intently on
what we can control: providing our customers and clients with
the best service and most comprehensive financial services
solutions in the market; managing our costs; and doing our
part to keep the economy moving forward. Our long-term value
will come through when we do that.
As we proceed, I would like to thank our employees for their
continuing commitment to this important work; our customers
and clients for their confidence in our ability to deliver for
them; and our shareholders for continuing to share our journey.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and feedback as we move
forward together.
Brian T. Moynihan
Chief Executive Officer
March 12, 2012
2 Tangible book value is a non-GAAP financial measure. For reconciliation to GAAP
financial measures, refer to Supplemental Financial Data on page 32 and Statistical
Table XV in the 2011 Financial Review section.