Chase vs. Bank of America: CRA Ratings, Complaints, and Financials Compared

Chase and Bank of America dominate American banking. Between them they hold over $6.7 trillion in assets, operate tens of thousands of branches, and between them account for roughly 30% of all CFPB consumer complaints filed against banks. If you're choosing between them — or just want to understand how they compare — here's what the data shows.

Size and scale

JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. is the largest bank in the United States with $4.02 trillion in total assets as of the latest FDIC Call Report. Bank of America is the second-largest at $2.67 trillion. Both operate national branch networks and full-service retail, business, and investment banking platforms.

The size difference matters for some things (Chase has more branches and ATMs overall) and less for others (both are effectively nationwide). If you're deciding between them primarily for retail banking, branch coverage and product rates are probably more relevant than total asset size.

CRA ratings

Both banks hold Outstanding CRA ratings — the highest possible score under the Community Reinvestment Act.

An Outstanding rating signals that the bank's examiners found substantial performance in lending, investment, and service to low- and moderate-income communities. Only about 10–12% of large banks earn this designation. Both Chase and Bank of America have consistently received Outstanding ratings over multiple exam cycles.

Note that Chase's exam is more recent (2024 vs. 2022), which matters when evaluating current behavior. CRA ratings reflect conditions at the time of examination; behavior can change between exams.

CFPB consumer complaints

Raw complaint counts at this scale are almost meaningless without context — both banks have millions of customers. What matters is the complaint rate and how complaints are resolved.

Chase has slightly more complaints in raw terms, but responds faster (0% untimely vs. 2.6% for BofA). Bank of America provides monetary relief to a higher share of complainants (31.4% vs. 18.7%), which could indicate either more generous resolutions or more complaints that warrant them.

Both banks have complaint rates per $1 billion in assets that are well within the range expected for institutions of their size. See the full breakdown on their CFPB complaint rankings →

Which is better for you?

On the data available — CRA ratings, complaint resolution speed, monetary relief rates — the two banks are closely matched. Chase responds faster to complaints; BofA resolves more with financial remediation. Both have Outstanding CRA records.

Choose Chase if: you prioritize speed of complaint resolution, you prefer the most recently audited CRA record, or you need the largest branch/ATM network.

Choose Bank of America if:you prefer higher financial relief on complaint outcomes, you value BofA's Preferred Rewards program, or you bank primarily in the Southeast where BofA has denser coverage.

For most consumers, product rates, branch locations near you, and mobile app experience will matter more than the metrics above. Both banks score similarly on the objective regulatory data — the differentiation is in day-to-day experience.