About Bank of America Corporation
Bank of America is one of the world's largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the US, serving more than 59 million consumer and small business relationships with more than 6,100 retail banking offices, nearly 18,500 ATMs and award-winning online banking with nearly 25 million active users. 

Bank of America has multiple core competitive strengths that differentiate us from competitors and serve as a platform for our continued growth. One of these is our size and scale. We offer the most convenient, coast-to-coast banking network for our customers and clients and a global capital markets platform to serve our corporate and institutional clients. Customers benefit from our size and scale through greater convenience, efficiency, relationship pricing and our ability to invest in the best ideas.

In January 2008 we announced a definitive agreement to purchase all outstanding shares of Countrywide Financial Corporation (Countrywide), the largest mortgage lender in the US, for approximately US$4.0 billion in common stock. The acquisition will make Bank of America the nation's leading mortgage lender and loan servicer. The completion of this transaction is subject to closing conditions and regulatory approvals and is expected to close early in the third quarter of 2008. In August of 2007 we made a US$2.0 billion investment in Countrywide in the form of Series B non-voting convertible preferred securities yielding 7.25 per cent.

Funding strategy
Bank of America has a strong and well-diversified funding platform in terms of geography, investors and products and we manage our liquidity at two levels. The first is the liquidity of the parent company, which is the holding company that owns the banking and non-banking subsidiaries. The second is the liquidity of the banking subsidiaries. The management of liquidity at both levels is essential as the parent company and banking subsidiaries have different funding needs and sources, and are subject to certain regulatory guidelines and requirements.

The primary sources of funding for the parent company include dividends received from its banking and non-banking subsidiaries, and proceeds from the issuance of senior and subordinated debt, as well as commercial paper and equity. The primary sources of funding for our banking subsidiaries include customer deposits and wholesale market-based funding.

The financial market disruptions that began in 2007 continue to impact the global economy and financial services sector. While market conditions have been challenging, we have taken direct actions to enhance our liquidity position during this period, including the issuance of US$12.9 billion of preferred stock by the parent company and US$6.0 billion of extendible bank notes by Bank of America, N.A. Furthermore, in the first half of the second quarter of 2008, we issued an additional US$4.0 billion of preferred stock and US$6.0 billion of senior notes by the parent company and US$4.0 billion of senior bank notes by Bank of America, N.A. It remains unclear when the current market conditions will subside. However, the conservative management of our liquidity position enables us to meet our liquidity requirements and manage within our usual parameters.

Bank of America issues debt securities to retail and institutional investors in North America, EMEA and Asia and approximately 43 per cent of parent company funding is done in the international markets.

Regulatory capital
Total shareholders' equity was US$156 billion at March 31 2008 and the Tier 1 and Total Capital ratios were 7.51 percent and 11.71 percent, respectively. The company was classified as "well-capitalised" for regulatory purposes, the highest classification.

AUD activity
Bank of America issued its first Kangaroo bond in November 2003. Since then, the bank has issued a total of A$3.925 billion in this market, in eight lines. In February 2007 Bank of America was the first US financial institution to issue a subordinated transaction in the Kangaroo market. 

In March 2007 Bank of America issued its inaugural Kauri bond - a NZ$325 million two-tranche fixed and floating rate bond which matures in March 2012.