Bank of America shrinks for first time in a decade

In 2011, Bank of America shrank for the first time in a decade.

By selling non-core assets, reducing debt and otherwise streamlining the business, the Charlotte-based bank reduced its total assets by 6 percent in 2011, according to financial statements released Thursday. That brought its assets to $2.13 trillion.

It marked the first time the bank's total assets had shrunk over the course of a year since 2001. In the intervening years, the bank nearly quadrupled in size.

In 2001, Bank of America's assets fell 3 percent, to $622 billion. Trying to stave off recession, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates almost a dozen times.

In the bank's annual report for that year, CEO Ken Lewis wrote that the bank used those falling interest rates to shed low-yielding assets as the yield curve steepened.