Strategies for growth. Our job in 2008 is to manage through the current economic storm and use our advantages - size, scale, revenue diversity, innovation, integration and execution - to position the bank for rapid growth when the storm abates. Here are some highlights of plans and progress in our three major business lines.

Global Consumer & Small Business Banking (GCSBB)
I believe there are three keys to building a winning franchise in retail financial services: convenience, innovation and service quality.

Convenience is a well-known strength of Bank of America. No company is more ubiquitous - we have by far the largest network of banking centers and ATMs in the United States, and we are No. 1 in telephone banking, online banking and bill-pay as well. Our products are also very easy for customers to use. For example, our online bill-pay product won the Webby People's Voice Award for the second year in a row based on voting by the public, and Bank of America was named twice on IndexCreditCards.com's list of top 10 consumer-friendly credit cards.

Innovation has become a great strength of our company, in part because of the huge customer base that we serve. With more than 3,000 customer transactions per second, we know a lot about customers' needs and preferences. We invest in the analytical work that turns that knowledge into actionable insight, which, in turn, helps us create new and better products and services that are attractive and meaningful to our customers.

Examples from recent years have been Keep the Change^®, free SafeSend^® and $0 Online Equity Trades. In 2007, we continued to introduce new products with the launch of No Fee Mortgage PLUS (which eliminates most fees on conforming mortgages), Mobile Banking (which enables customers to bank with their cell phones), new Risk Free CD products (which include high fixed rates and penalty-free withdrawals) and the new BankAmericard™ (which offers more rewards points, no points limits and the most flexible rewards options in the industry).

Service quality and customer satisfaction, of course, are critical. I wrote last year that after several years of consistent gains in customer satisfaction, we had reached a plateau in many of our businesses, and that each business was laying new plans to push scores even higher. Overall scores in GCSBB faced some headwinds from the expansion of our card business - customer satisfaction in the card industry tends to be somewhat lower than in retail banking - but scores have shown a positive trend since last March. Banking center scores finished the year at an all-time high, and overall consumer problem incidence rates from July through the end of the year were down 13 percent.

In retail financial services, the result of a customer experience marked by convenience, innovation and service quality is customer loyalty. Loyalty leads to a growing customer base and expanded relationships with existing customers - just the right recipe for the organic growth that will drive our company forward in 2008 and beyond.

Global Wealth & Investment Management (GWIM)
In many respects, Global Wealth & Investment Management is one of our greatest opportunities for growth. This business includes Premier Banking & Investments (PB&I), which serves affluent clients through Premier Banking and Banc of America Investment Services, Inc., our brokerage; U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management, which serves high-net-worth clients; and Columbia Management, our asset management team. In each of these groups, associates' top priority is client relationship expansion - by working with teammates throughout GWIM and across the company.

Premier Banking serves about 850,000 clients - although more than seven million Bank of America customers or households qualify for this higher level of service. One of the most important investments we are making is to grow our distribution and service capabilities so that we can continue to move qualifying customers from the mass consumer segment into PB&I.

A key measure of success in serving affluent clients is whether they choose to bring us their investing business. At the end of 2007, about one-third of our Premier Banking clients had investment accounts with us. That number grew at an annual rate of 14 percent in 2007, while client balances have grown at a rate of 11 percent and self-directed brokerage assets were up 20 percent.

One of our best opportunities to expand these relationships is retirement. The demographics are compelling: The first of the 78 million baby boomers turn 62 in 2008, and the over-69 population will increase by 55 percent by 2030. This is where the money is: $15.1 trillion in total assets and an annual profit pool of about $35 billion. We are building our team to take advantage of this opportunity.

The biggest news in our private banking business in 2007 was the acquisition of U.S. Trust Corporation. This acquisition creates the nation's pre-eminent wealth management provider, U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management. The group manages more than $225 billion in assets through offices in 32 states, and we've been expanding the team in selected cities to better serve a growing client base. The opportunity here is large. While the group currently serves about 130,000 wealthy clients, this number represents fewer than half of the more than 300,000 wealthy families in the Bank of America footprint.

Columbia Management's $440 billion in assets under management supported the continued growth of GWIM's total assets under management to more than $640 billion, and the group was recognized with five Lipper Awards for its mutual funds' performance. Columbia's investment performance contributed to our company's growing brand as a strong player in the wealth management industry and lent momentum to the market share gains we made across our client segments.

Global Corporate & Investment Banking (GCIB)
Early this year, we announced the results of a strategic review of our investment banking business. This study was conducted to determine the right mix of capabilities that will enable us to most effectively serve our commercial, corporate and institutional clients, and provide shareholders with the best returns.

We are aggressively implementing the recommendations of that study. Here are the highlights:

• We will continue to serve corporate, commercial and financial-sponsor clients with debt and equity capital-raising services, strategic advice and a full range of corporate banking services.
• We will focus investment banking and global markets coverage on areas of strength, leading to reduced activity in some structured products and refocusing of our international platform on debt, cash management and trading, including rates and foreign exchange.
• We made a decision to exit the equity prime brokerage business, which provides investment banking services to hedge funds.

Our goal has always been to be the primary financial and strategic partner to our clients. That continues to be our goal today. Simply put, this business is important to us because we know it's important to our clients. The changes outlined above will enable us to grow the business profitably and will make us a leaner and tougher competitor where we know we have the advantages necessary to win.

Even before the capital markets meltdown in the second half of the year, our team in GCIB was reorganizing to better serve clients. One important step was to consolidate accountability within Global Commercial Banking for all aspects of client relationship management, including client revenue and profitability. At the same time, we consolidated credit and treasury management product delivery in a new team called Global Product Solutions.

Client satisfaction scores in GCIB have been rising consistently - up a total of 25 percent over the past three years. We believe the combination of meaningful organizational change with the results of the strategic review will put this business - which continues to take market share - back on the right track for growth.

Next: Other paths to growth