Rather interesting business model,
Buy up and merge with nearly every bank under the sun, then shut nearly all of them down thus eliminating the competition.
In the old west they just shot the competition.
The decision to buy Countrywide Financial (the source of all these toxic mortgages that BofA is holding) was NOT made by the current CEO, Brian Moynihan but by the previous CEO, Ken Lewis.
Moynihan stepped into a hole dug for him by his predecessor.