Most people have never heard of Massachusetts Bank. But if you bank with Bank of America today — and roughly one in five American adults does — you're banking at an institution whose deepest roots trace back to a single charter granted in Boston on February 7, 1784. That charter predates the U.S. Constitution. It predates the Bill of Rights. Massachusetts Bank was, at the moment of its founding, only the second bank in the country to exist at all.
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What followed over the next two centuries is one of the longest and most turbulent corporate genealogies in American financial history. A bank that survived the Revolutionary War's aftermath, the Great Depression, two real estate collapses, a federal money-laundering prosecution, and a hostile acquisition attempt — only to be absorbed, quietly and somewhat unceremoniously, into a North Carolina bank that didn't exist until 1874.
BANK OF BOSTON // THE NUMBERS THAT DEFINED IT
Year founded
1784
As Massachusetts Bank
Final year as independent
1996
Merged with BayBanks
Total lifespan
212 years
As independent entity
BayBanks merger value
$2B
Stock swap, July 1996
FleetBoston sale price
$47B
Bank of America, 2004
FleetBoston assets at sale
$197B
7th largest US bank
Name changes
5
1784 to 2004
1785 scandal fine
$500K
Money laundering plea (1985)
The Complete Timeline
Click any event to expand the full story behind it.
1784 → 2004 // INTERACTIVE HISTORY
Feb 7
1784
1784
Era I — The Birth
Massachusetts Bank is chartered — America's first federally chartered joint-stock bank
Founded in Boston just three years after the end of the Revolutionary War, Massachusetts Bank was only the second bank in the United States to receive a charter — after the Bank of North America in Philadelphia.
The Massachusetts Bank was established to finance the new nation's commerce at a time when the country had no central banking system and currency was wildly unstable. Its founding shareholders included some of the most prominent Boston merchants of the era. It operated from State Street in downtown Boston and quickly became the financial backbone of New England's trade economy. The charter granted by the Massachusetts General Court gave it rights to issue notes, take deposits, and make loans — the core functions of modern commercial banking. This single document, signed in 1784, is the direct ancestor of the Bank of America charter that operates today.
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1859
Era I — Expansion
Safety Fund Bank founded — later becomes First National Bank of Boston
A separate Boston bank is chartered as Safety Fund Bank. In 1903, it will merge with Massachusetts Bank to form First National Bank of Boston — and take that name for the next 67 years.
The Safety Fund Bank was founded in 1859 during a period of rapid industrial expansion in New England. By the turn of the century, it had grown substantially enough to absorb the older Massachusetts Bank in a merger that created the largest bank in New England. The resulting institution — First National Bank of Boston — kept the First National name until 1970, when it rebranded to become what most people knew as "the Bank of Boston."
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1970
Era II — The Bank of Boston
First National Boston Corporation renames itself Bank of Boston Corporation
After 67 years under the First National name, the holding company rebrands as Bank of Boston Corporation — the name that would define its identity for the next quarter-century and the name most Americans still recognize today.
The rebranding to Bank of Boston in 1970 coincided with a period of aggressive geographic and product expansion. The bank extended its reach across New England, built a significant international presence in Latin America, and positioned itself as the preeminent financial institution in the region. By the 1980s, Bank of Boston was among the 20 largest banks in the United States and had ambitions to be the dominant bank not just in New England but on the Eastern Seaboard.
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1985
Era II — The Scandal
Money-laundering plea — $1.22 billion in unreported cash transactions, $500K fine
Bank of Boston pleads guilty to failing to report $1.22 billion in cash transactions with Swiss banks and offshore entities — becoming the first major U.S. bank prosecuted for money laundering. The reputational damage was severe and immediate.
The 1985 money-laundering scandal was a defining moment in the Bank of Boston's history and in U.S. banking regulation broadly. Federal investigators found the bank had processed $1.22 billion in cash transactions — mostly involving offshore accounts — without filing the required Currency Transaction Reports with the U.S. Treasury. The bank paid a $500,000 fine and entered a plea agreement. The fallout was swift: shareholders sued, customers withdrew deposits, and the bank's stock dropped sharply. The episode accelerated regulatory oversight of large bank cash flows that would shape U.S. anti-money-laundering law for decades.
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1990–91
Era II — Near Death
Real estate collapse: $395M record loss, stock falls from $30 to $3, insolvency whispered
The New England real estate crash of the early 1990s nearly kills the bank. Record losses, a cratering stock price, and rumors of imminent insolvency follow. Rival Fleet beats Bank of Boston in the bid to absorb the failed Bank of New England — a blow that costs it its top regional position.
The early 1990s were the most dangerous period in the Bank of Boston's history since the Revolutionary War era. The collapse of the New England real estate market wiped out billions in loan values on the bank's books, forcing a record net loss of $395 million in 1990 followed by another loss in 1991. The stock fell from $30 per share to as low as $3, and analysts openly discussed the possibility of the bank failing. Bank of Boston also lost the bidding war for the failed Bank of New England to Fleet Financial in 1991 — a deal that would have restored its New England dominance. It also saw a proposed merger with Shawmut National Corporation collapse in January 1992 over executive role disputes. The bank survived by pivoting sharply to community lending: small businesses, home mortgages, and personal loans — a remarkable about-face for an institution known for its wholesale and international banking ambitions.
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July 1996
Era III — BankBoston
Bank of Boston acquires BayBanks in a $2 billion stock swap — becomes BankBoston
In a deal designed to make the bank too big to be easily absorbed by a competitor, Bank of Boston acquires crosstown rival BayBanks — 205 branches, 1,000 ATMs, and $11.5 billion in assets. The merged entity renames itself BankBoston Corporation in 1997.
BayBanks was founded in 1944 as Baystate Corporation and had built a uniquely strong retail banking franchise in Greater Boston, with one of the most advanced ATM networks in the country. The $2 billion all-stock deal gave Bank of Boston immediate street-level retail presence it had never had — BayBanks was where ordinary Bostonians banked. The addition of $11.5 billion in BayBanks assets pushed the combined entity to $62.31 billion in total assets by year-end 1996, reclaiming from Fleet its position as the leading bank in Boston. CEO Ira Stepanian had engineered the deal specifically to make BankBoston a more difficult takeover target — a goal that, as events would show, it only partially achieved.
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Oct 1999
Era IV — FleetBoston
Fleet Financial acquires BankBoston for $16B — FleetBoston Financial is born
Despite the BayBanks defense, Fleet Financial acquires BankBoston and merges the two rivals into FleetBoston Financial — at the time the 8th-largest bank in the United States, with over $190 billion in assets and 20 million customers.
The merger with Fleet Financial was the deal BankBoston's leadership had spent years trying to avoid. Fleet — based in Providence, Rhode Island — had been Bank of Boston's most aggressive New England competitor throughout the 1980s and 1990s, winning the Bank of New England bidding war in 1991 and consistently outmaneuvering Boston. When Fleet acquired BankBoston in October 1999 through a complex stock-and-cash deal, it created FleetBoston Financial Corporation — headquartered in Boston and sporting a combined network that covered the entire East Coast. The merged bank retained the Boston address but was operationally controlled by Fleet's culture and management. For the Bank of Boston's institutional identity, this was effectively the end — though its Massachusetts Bank charter lived on in the corporate genealogy.
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2004
Era V — The End
Bank of America acquires FleetBoston for $47 billion — all branches converted to BofA
Bank of America — headquartered in Charlotte, NC — announces the $47 billion acquisition of FleetBoston Financial. At closing, all 1,200+ branches are rebranded as Bank of America, hundreds of employees are laid off, and the Massachusetts Bank charter — 220 years old — disappears into a Charlotte balance sheet.
The acquisition of FleetBoston by Bank of America in 2004 was, at the time of announcement, one of the largest bank mergers in U.S. history. FleetBoston had $197 billion in assets, 20 million customers, and revenue of $12 billion — the seventh-largest bank in the United States. Bank of America paid $47 billion in cash and stock. The merger was completed in April 2004. In the months that followed, hundreds of FleetBoston workers lost their jobs or were demoted, according to The Boston Globe. Every FleetBoston branch — across New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and beyond — was converted to the Bank of America brand. The 220-year-old Massachusetts Bank legacy technically survives in one form: a subsidiary named BankBoston still exists as a private banking arm of Bank of America, serving Latin American clients. But as a New England institution, the Bank of Boston was gone.
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The Bank of Boston didn't fail. It wasn't dissolved, shut down by regulators, or destroyed by a crisis. It was simply — and over a very long time — outgrown by everything around it. That is, in its own way, a different kind of ending.
Every Major Deal That Shaped the Story
BANK OF BOSTON // KEY MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
| Year | Deal | Value | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1903 | Massachusetts Bank + Safety Fund Bank | Not disclosed | First National Bank of Boston |
| 1985 | Acquired Connecticut-based Colonial Bancorp | Not disclosed | Regional expansion |
| 1987 | Acquired BankVermont Corporation | Not disclosed | New England dominance push |
| July 1996 | Bank of Boston acquires BayBanks | $2B stock | BankBoston Corporation formed |
| Oct 1999 | Fleet Financial acquires BankBoston | ~$16B | FleetBoston Financial |
| Apr 2004 | Bank of America acquires FleetBoston | $47B | Full absorption into BofA |
| Period | Name | Key Fact |
|---|---|---|
| 1784–1903 | Massachusetts Bank | 1st federally chartered joint-stock bank in the US |
| 1903–1970 | First National Bank of Boston | Merger of Massachusetts Bank + Safety Fund Bank |
| 1970–1996 | Bank of Boston Corporation | Peak regional dominance; Latin America operations |
| 1996–1999 | BankBoston Corporation | Post-BayBanks merger; $62B in assets |
| 1999–2004 | FleetBoston Financial | 7th largest US bank; $197B assets; 20M customers |
| 2004–present | Bank of America | All branches rebranded; heritage absorbed into BofA |
| What survived | In what form | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts Bank charter (1784) | Inside Bank of America's corporate genealogy | Historically alive |
| BankBoston brand | Subsidiary private bank owned by BofA, Latin America operations | Active subsidiary |
| Boston branches | Rebranded as Bank of America locations | All active |
| Customer accounts | Migrated to Bank of America systems in 2004–2005 | Fully converted |
| FleetBoston Financial brand | Retired completely after 2004 merger | Defunct |
| Bank of Boston brand | Retired in 1997 (BankBoston merger) | Defunct |
What It Means That This Happened in Boston
There is something quietly significant about the fact that America's oldest federally chartered bank — born in revolutionary Boston, the financial center of the new nation — ended its independent life as a branch of a Charlotte, North Carolina institution that was founded 90 years after Massachusetts Bank wrote its first loan.
It reflects a pattern that played out across American banking in the 1990s and 2000s: the consolidation of the industry from thousands of regional institutions into a handful of national giants. In 1980, the United States had more than 14,000 FDIC-insured banks. By 2010, that number had fallen to under 7,000. Today it stands below 5,000. Bank of Boston was not alone in being absorbed — it was one of the most historically significant casualties of that wave, which is precisely why it's worth understanding how it happened.
Bank of America's own eastern operations now carry a corporate history that technically begins on February 7, 1784 — older than the Constitution, older than the presidency, older than the United States as a functioning government. That lineage belongs to a bank that is headquartered 1,000 miles away from where it started, and that bears none of the names under which it spent those 220 years.
Frequently Asked Questions
BANK OF BOSTON // HISTORY FAQs
The Bank of Boston traces its origins to February 7, 1784, when Massachusetts Bank was chartered — making it the first federally chartered joint-stock bank in the United States and only the second bank in the country to receive a charter, after the Bank of North America in Philadelphia. The bank operated under the Massachusetts Bank name until 1903, when it merged with Safety Fund Bank to form the First National Bank of Boston.
The Bank of Boston did not merge directly with Bank of America. The transition happened in stages: Bank of Boston merged with BayBanks in July 1996 to form BankBoston Corporation; BankBoston was then acquired by Fleet Financial Group in October 1999 to create FleetBoston Financial; and finally, Bank of America acquired FleetBoston in April 2004 for $47 billion. All FleetBoston branches were converted to the Bank of America brand that year.
In 1985, Bank of Boston pleaded guilty to failing to report $1.22 billion in cash transactions — mostly involving Swiss banks and offshore entities — as required by U.S. Treasury regulations. It became the first major U.S. bank prosecuted for money laundering. The fine was $500,000, modest by today's standards, but the reputational damage was significant and contributed to the bank's vulnerability going into the real estate crisis of the early 1990s.
Fleet Financial — based in Providence, Rhode Island — outmaneuvered Bank of Boston at several critical junctures. In 1991, Fleet won the bidding war to absorb the failed Bank of New England, which would have restored Bank of Boston's regional dominance. Fleet was more aggressive in acquisitions, more willing to take risks, and built a stronger merger-and-integration machine through the late 1980s and 1990s. By 1999, Fleet had grown large enough to acquire its former rival outright — completing a reversal of fortunes that had been two decades in the making.
Not as an independent bank. After the 2004 merger, all branches and customer accounts were converted to Bank of America. A subsidiary named BankBoston still exists as a private banking arm owned by Bank of America, primarily serving clients in Latin America — where the original Bank of Boston had built a significant international operation. The 1784 Massachusetts Bank charter technically lives on inside Bank of America's corporate genealogy, making BofA one of the few institutions in the world that can claim to trace its roots to the American founding era.
The 240-year arc from Massachusetts Bank to Bank of America is, in miniature, the story of American banking itself: from local institutions embedded in specific communities to national corporations whose relationship to place is largely symbolic. Boston kept the branches. Charlotte kept the charter. History kept the record.
