BOA's Tier 1 capital climbed 32.8% during the course of 2009 from $121bn to $160bn. This compares with a drop of 2.3% in Tier 1 capital for JPMorgan Chase.
As the dust of the financial crisis settled last year and the US's biggest banks started to pay off their debts from the federal government's Troubled Asset Relief Programme, a new atmosphere began to pervade the sector.
A focus on soundness over profits and on capital over assets has been drummed into the DNA of banks by the economic downturn.
Add to this more measured air a new president intent on clipping the wings of the US financial sector, and 2009 can be characterised by sobriety over risk taking and caution over speculation. This is reflected in banks' capital-asset ratios (CARs), a measure of bank soundness, which have risen steadily since the more heady days of 2007.
BOA's CAR was 7.21% in 2009, compared with just 4.86% back in 2007. It is a similar story for Citigroup, the third largest bank by Tier 1 capital in the world, which has increased its CAR from 4% in 2007 to almost 7% in 2009. JPMorgan Chase's CAR is up from 5.7% in 2007 to 6.5% in 2009.
In terms of profits, US banks had a better year in 2009 than they did in 2008. After not featuring at all in last year's top 10 profit-makers' ranking, three US banks made it into the top 10 in this year's ranking. These were Goldman Sachs in third place, Wells Fargo in fifth place and JPMorgan Chase in eighth place.
JPMorgan Chase also stood out in 2009 by growing its profits more than any other US bank. The bank made $16bn in 2009, up 245% on its 2008 result.
Last year was yet another tough one for Citigroup. The bank made a loss of almost $8.5bn for the year to December 31, 2009, compared with a loss of $5.3bn for the year to December 31, 2008.
Citigroup posted the third biggest loss in The Banker's Top 1000 rankings for 2010, behind Anglo Irish Bank Corporation and GMAC.
Highest movers: North America ($m)
Top 25: North America ($m)
