Bank of America 2015 Annual Report Download - page 11

crisis was that a substantial portion of our legacy issues came
from loans we acquired that were originated elsewhere.
One of the ways we drive our customer-focused strategy is
through our business integration work. Several years ago, we
embraced a local market-driven approach. We organized the
country into roughly  market coverage areas. At the local
market level, our teams are working together to look at every
customer and client relationship in their market and ask —
are we doing all we can for them?
We have seen dramatic growth in the way we are referring
existing clients to other teammates who may not yet have
a relationship with those particular clients. From nearly
, referrals five years ago to roughly  million in , we
believe this is a competitive differentiator, and we are driving it.
This approach not only gets us the referrals and the business,
but also creates a unique brand. It creates a global company
that feels local.
Last fall, after a visit to meet with customers and my
teammates in Portland, Maine, I received a note from a client
that to me was one of the highest compliments our firm could
receive. He shared how, over the last year or so, he had seen
“big” feeling “small” starting to happen. “Somehow, Bank of
America feels like a small bank, albeit with incredible solutions
for business clients.”
We must grow within our Risk Framework
As a financial services company, our business is to take risk
in a responsible manner that serves our clients and helps the
economy grow.
Whether investing in a small business, making a credit decision,
or preventing fraud, nearly every aspect of our work calls for
sound judgment and a commitment to doing what’s right
for our customers and shareholders. Our culture emphasizes
that we are one team, and we have a shared responsibility to
manage risk, act responsibly, have an ownership mindset, and
escalate issues so they can be addressed proactively.
Over the past several years, we’ve reduced risk significantly —
whether trading, operating or credit risk. For example, net
charge-offs, nonperforming assets and delinquencies all
improved again in . Charge-offs were the lowest they
have been in a decade. What’s important here is how we did
it — by focusing our efforts on core, creditworthy customers.
This is at the heart of our approach to responsible growth: to
understand our customers and clients well and do more with
them at lower risk.
Our Risk Framework is crucial to our ability to manage risk, run our
business and grow responsibly. The Risk Framework is not a concept;
it is a deep set of metrics against which we measure our teams
to ensure that we maintain strong risk management discipline.
We continue to support
our business clients by
making credit available.
Loan balances in our
Global Banking and Global
Markets businesses
increased  percent
from  to $ billion.
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