Bank of America Corp. shareholders approved the company’s US$47 billion takeover of FleetBoston Financial Corp. today.

The acquisition creates the No. 3 bank in the United States. The merger has already been approved by Federal Reserve Board.

The newly merged bank has a network of approximately 5,700 branches, stretching from California through the U.S. South and up to New England.

The new bank’s assets are estimated at US$966 billion, trailing only Citigroup and another planned bank megamerger between Chicago-based Bank One and J.P. Morgan Chase.

In other U.S. financial news, brokerage firm Bear Stearns Cos Inc. today reported a 32% rise in profit, driven by the firm’s “best ever” quarterly results in fixed income and higher investment banking and trading revenue.

The Wall Street firm reported fiscal first-quarter net income of US$361.1 million, or US$2.57 a share, compared with US$274.3 million, or US$2 a share, a year earlier.

Net revenue rose 14% to US$1.7 billion from US$1.5 billion for the first quarter a year earlier.

Bear Stearns’ quarterly report comes a day after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. said its quarterly profit more than doubled, driven by higher revenue from bond and equity trading, stock sales and mergers.