Bank of America Corp (BAC), Citigroup Inc (C): ‘The Most Important Thing’ About Bank Stocks

And lest there be any doubt, aside from NYCB, the most successful banks over the last few years have not been the universal banks like Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) and Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC), both of which have seen their respective stock prices decline by 73% and 55% over the last five years as a result of bad loans and imprudent acquisitions.

Instead, they’ve been the stodgy, old-time lenders like U.S. Bancorp that never abandoned their focus on the principal functions of banking, gathering deposits, and writing good loans.

The article “The Most Important Thing” About Bank Stocks originally appeared on Fool.com is written by John Maxfield.

John Maxfield owns shares of Bank of America. The Motley Fool recommends Bank of America. The Motley Fool owns shares of Bank of America, Citigroup, Huntington Bancshares, and KeyCorp. 

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