The history of BankBoston represents the combination of dozens of banks throughout the New England region acquired over the course of more than two centuries.

On December 24, 1927, Bank of Boston's headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argentina, were blown up by the Italian anarchist Severino Di Giovanni, in the frame of the international campaign supporting Sacco and Vanzetti.

Despite the Wall Street crash of 1929, the First National Bank of Boston continued to grow in 1929, purchasing the Old Colony Trust Company.

Although still smaller than its failed takeover targets earlier in the decade, BayBank had a strong retail banking operation, with 205 branches and over a thousand ATMs.

Baybanks was founded in 1928 when a Massachusetts asset manager with controlling stakes in nine banks reorganized itself as Old Colony Trust.

After successfully weathering the Great Depression, Old Colony Trust changed its name to Baystate Corporation.

In August 1998 BankBoston acquired Robertson Stephens & Co. from BankAmerica Corporation for approximately $800 million.

Fleet now dominated the New England market, yet saw the value in maintaining the old Bank of Boston brand in Latin America.

The combination of Fleet and BankBoston resulted in what was the eighth largest bank in the United States at the time, with assets of over $190 billion.

The merged entity, FleetBoston Financial, adopted BankBoston's former Boston headquarters as its own.

In 2004, FleetBoston in turn was purchased by Bank of America, which was looking to expand its East Coast presence.

[10] Operations in these countries continued to use the BankBoston brand until Banco Itau completed its takeover in Chile on February 27, 2007,[11] and in Uruguay on March 23, 2007.