Bank of America is big by any stretch of the imagination. Indeed, it is so large that - with a market value of more than $183 billion - it dwarfs all but two members of the FTSE 100 index of leading British companies.

The second largest bank in America, behind Citigroup, is outranked in terms of size on this side of the Atlantic only by GEC, the diversified industrial giant with its own rather large business in the States, and Lord Browne's oil giant BP.

BoA's sterling-equivalent market cap of £103 billion lags behind BP, at £125 billion, and GEC, at £196.4 billion.

The Wall Street giant is also just shy of three times the size of Barclays - the £35.9 billion financial services group with which Bank of America has so often been linked of late in takeover gossip.

But the Wall Street bank's wily acquisition of MBNA, which sells hundreds of branded credit cards to more than 1 million customers in this country, is large even by its standards.

The costs of bringing the two groups together are an eye-popping $1.25 billion and will result in 6,000 people losing their jobs. Bank of America has yet to state where these job cuts will come.

The acquisition also comes hotfoot on BofA's $3 billion acquisition of a 9 per cent stake in China Construction Bank. Like all expanding banks, including Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC, Bank of America is keen to cash in on the explosion in the Asian economies.

The bank is said to have found itself in a cul-de-sac back home in that it would have risked competition concerns if it had taken a swipe at Citi, JP Morgan Chase, Bear Stears, or even the suddenly not-so-weak Morgan Stanley.

Unless they want to run the risk of stagnating, frustrating their shareholders or not employing their capital efficiently enough, financial groups such as Bank of America also have to expand, developing in new markets and securing footholds in developing economies.

But, although the rumour mill refuses to grind to a halt about the possibilities of a Bank of America tie-up with Barclays, it is hard not to draw the conclusion that the American bank has put the idea on hold, even if it might revisit the idea later.

City speculation persists about London meetings between Bank of America executives and their counterparts at Barclays and Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm that has been so successful under the irrepressible Bob Diamond.

Bank of America is said to have been at least as interested in Mr Diamond's bond and risk management business as in the opportunities afforded by Barclays' retail and business banking, or indeed its Barclaycard credit card operation.

As the newly promoted president of Barclays - and having publicly disassociated himself from the vacancy that existed at the top of Morgan Stanley - Mr Diamond would have been a central figure if any recently rumoured talks had resulted in any serious deal-doing.

But buying a bank, whether it is Barclays or no, is a major entreprise - particularly in the UK and particularly if it involves an investment bank.

The Government has made it plain that it would not interfere with a foreign takeover of one of its most important companies, as was evinced in the takeover of Abbey by Spanish banking group Santander.

But there is still no shortage of unions and consumer or other lobby groups that would kick up a hell of a stink if they sniffed branch closures or a forced round of redundancies among staff.

Investment banking, while it can be extremely lucrative, is also outrageously expensive. If a predatory Bank of America wanted to part company with any unwanted staff at Barclays Capital, for example, their departures would not come cheap.

Bank of America is without doubt an acquisitive bank - one City source estimated today that it is currently running at a rate of one large takeover a year.

So while the odds of a new global banking giant named "Bank of Barclays" or "Barclays of America" have probably just lengthened dramatically, at the same time the smart money is often in the long game.

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