Bank of America expansion plans include WNY. (western New York)

Bank of America, which has visions of becoming the nation's first real "bank of America" with offices coast to coast, wants to create a branch network with suburban Buffalo as one location.

The unfolding plan came to light in late December.

Bank of America FSB, the thrift subsidiary of San Francisco-based BankAmerica Corp., petitioned federal regulators to approve an office in Amherst where BankAmerica Mortgage, a division of Bank of America FSB, opened its first Western New York residential lending center in October.

Two weeks earlier, the Office of Thrift Supervision - the federal body that regulates savings banks and savings and loan associations - approved a block of 279 other applications from Bank of America FSB. The bank has up to a year to open new branches after receiving approval.

Federal law will allow banks to branch across state lines in 1997 subject to restriction by the …