Thread: Bank of America's Plan: Open Accounts, Free Passes for Picas

Bank of America's Plan: Open Accounts, Free Passes for Picasso

By Patrick Cole

April 13 (Bloomberg) -- During the past three years, as Bank of America Corp. secured its position as the largest bank in the U.S. by deposits, it also has plastered its name in museums and performance halls.

For the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank, expanding its business goes hand-in-hand with supporting the arts.

``There's a big link between the vibrancy of a community and corporate philanthropy,'' said Anne Finucane, chief marketing officer at Bank of America. ``Doing the right thing in a community can also be smart for business.''

Now, add 25 museums in California to the list. Bank of America said Tuesday that it's expanding its free museum admission program to customers in the Golden State. ``Museums on Us'' already offers about 74 million bank cardholders free entry to 61 museums, science centers, historical societies and zoos during the month of May in nine northeastern states, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Bank of America isn't alone in sponsoring free entry to cultural institutions as a way to attract new customers. Discount retailer Target Corp. of Minneapolis, for instance, funds admission to the Museum of Modern Art in New York on Friday evenings.

But as Bank of America went on a shopping spree, it has boosted its sponsorship of the arts. It acquired FleetBoston Financial Corp.'s Fleet Bank for about $47 billion in 2004 and credit card issuer MBNA Corp. for about $35 billion in cash and stock in 2005.

Affluent Customer

In late 2004, Bank of America said it would give $1.5 billion to its overall philanthropic causes over 10 years. It gave about $200 million in 2006, up from $130 million in 2005, with recipients ranging from programs in education, health care and community development, Finucane said. Of the 2006 total, about $25 million was earmarked for the arts, up from $19 million in 2005.

``The name of the game in banking is deposits, and deposits come from new customers,'' said Charles Moore, executive director of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, which aims to boost companies' charitable contributions. Museum sponsorships ``reach a more educated and affluent customer,'' he said.

In the ``Museums on Us'' program, holders of Bank of America debit and credit cards and MBNA credit card customers show their bank cards for free admission with a guest. Bank of America doesn't pay fees to participating museums because the institutions either already receive the bank's financial support or have been loaned art from the bank's collection, valued at more than $100 million, Finucane said.

Easy Entrance

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the San Diego Museum of Art and the Huntington Library are among the participating California museums. Although Bank of America isn't currently expanding in California, the state has the bank's largest number of branches, with 984, and largest number of ATMs, with 4,100, said Rena DeSisto, senior vice president of the Bank of America Charitable Foundation.

``The program makes it easier for people to attend museums,'' said W. John Mullineaux, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's director of development. The museum, which receives about 600,000 visitors a year, charges $12.50 for admission, he said.

New Presence

Beyond the museum admission program, Bank of America's arts sponsorships are diverse. In 2004, it paid for education programs at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, which had just opened at the Time Warner Center in Manhattan. ``Bank of America was celebrating its new presence in the area, and we were too,'' said Bret Silver, Jazz at Lincoln Center's director of development.

In 2006, the bank sponsored ``Americans in Paris: 1860- 1900,'' an exhibition that traveled to a number of museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

It's also the sponsor of ``Matisse: Painter as Sculptor'' now at both Dallas Museum of Art and the nearby Nasher Sculpture Center and stopping later this year at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Bank of America said it considers New York an important market for its expansion plans. It has opened 62 branches in the past two years beyond the 24 it inherited from Fleet Bank in 2004. Along the way, it has sponsored Carnegie Hall's current and past season, and ``Museums on Us'' participants in New York include the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

``A successful bank needs to be a successful partner in this community,'' DeSisto said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Cole in New York at pcole3@Bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: April 13, 2007 00:04 EDT

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Anything for a buck...

They may have changed their slogan but they need to change their name too.

jp_48504 has there slogan right
Anything for a buck...