Amadeo Giannini
Encyclopedia
Amadeo Pietro Giannini, also known as Amadeo Peter Giannini or A.P. Giannini (May 6, 1870 – June 3, 1949), born in San Jose, California
, was the American
founder of Bank of America
.
immigrants
to the United States
, originally from Favale di Malvaro near Genoa
, Liguria
. He attended Heald College
, in San Francisco, California
. He started in business as a produce broker, commission merchant and produce dealer for farms in the Santa Clara Valley. He was extremely successful in that business, and sold his interest to his employees and retired at the age of 31 to administer his father-in-law's estate. He later became a director of the Columbus Savings & Loan in which his father-in-law owned an interest. At the time, banks were run for the benefit of the wealthy and the well-connected. Giannini observed a real opportunity to service the increasing immigrant population that were without a bank. At loggerheads with the other directors who did not share his sentiment, he quit the board in frustration and decided to start his own bank.
He founded the Bank of Italy
in San Francisco on October 17, 1904. The bank was housed in a converted saloon directly across the street from the Columbus Savings & Loan as an institution for the "little fellow". It was a new bank for the hardworking immigrants other banks would not serve. He offered those ignored customers savings accounts and loans, judging them not by how much money they already had, but by their character.
Deposits on that first day totaled $8,780. Within a year, deposits soared above $700,000 ($13.5 million in 2002 dollars). The 1906 San Francisco earthquake
and fires leveled much of the city. In the face of widespread devastation, Giannini set up a temporary bank, collecting deposits, making loans, and proclaiming that San Francisco would rise from the ashes.
Immediately after the earthquake, he moved the vault's money to his home outside the fire zone in then-rural San Mateo
, 18-miles by horse and wagon. The wagon used to transport the money was actually a garbage wagon, owned by Hayward resident Giobatta Cepollina, also a native of the Genoa area in Italy (Loano). The cargo was disguised beneath garbage to protect against theft. The fires severely heated the vaults of other big banks. Opening them immediately would ruin the money, so they were kept closed for weeks. Because of this, Giannini was one of the few who was able to provide loans. Giannini was forced to run his bank from a plank across two barrels in the street. Giannini made loans on a handshake to those interested in rebuilding. Years later, he would recount with pride that every single loan was repaid. As further testament to the trust Giannini garnered in the local community, as a reward to the local garbage man for helping to transport the bank's reserves, Giannini agreed to give the man's son his first job with the bank when he came of age. Giannini kept his promise, hiring young Frank Joseph Cepollina at age 14. Cepollina later retired from the bank at age 41.
By 1916, Giannini had expanded and opened several other branches. Giannini believed in branch banking as a way to stabilize banks during difficult times as well as expand the capital base. He bought banks throughout California and eventually had more than five hundred branches throughout the state.
In 1928, Giannini approached Orra E. Monnette
, president and chairman of the Bank of America, Los Angeles
, about a merger of the two financial institutions. Upon finalizing the merger, Giannini and Monnette concurred that the Bank of America
name idealized the broader mission of the new bank. The new institution continued under Giannini's chairmanship until his retirement in 1945; Monnette retained his Board seat and Officer's position. Prior to Monnette's creation of the Bank of America Los Angeles network, most banks were limited to a single city
or region
. Monnette was the first to create a system of centralized processing, bookkeeping and cash delivery. By diversifying the scope of community that the Bank of America served following its merger, the institution was better prepared to ride out minor, local economic issues.
Giannini is credited as the inventor of many modern banking practices. Most notably, Giannini was one of the first bankers to offer banking services to middle-class
Americans, rather than the upper class
. He also pioneered the holding company structure and established one of the first modern trans-national institutions.
Giannini helped nurture the motion picture and wine industries in California. He loaned Walt Disney
the funds to produce Snow White
, the first full-length, animated motion picture to be made in the US. During the Great Depression
, he bought the bond
s that financed the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge
. During World War II
, he bankrolled industrialist Henry Kaiser
and his enterprises which supported the war effort. After the War, he visited Italy
and arranged for loans to help rebuild the war-torn Fiat
factories. Giannini also gave capital to William Hewlett
and David Packard
to help form HP or Hewlett-Packard
. At this time, HP made oscilloscope
s.
Giannini founded another company, Transamerica Corporation
, as a holding company for his various interests, including Occidental Life Insurance Company. At one time, Transamerica was the controlling shareholder in Bank of America. They were separated by legislation enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1956, when Congress passed the Bank Holding Company Act, which did not allow bank holding companies to involve themselves in industrial activities.
Upon Giannini's death in 1949, his son Mario Giannini, afflicted with polio in his youth, assumed leadership of the bank;,and Giannini's daughter, Claire Giannini Hoffman (1905–1997), took her father's seat on the Bank's Board of Directors, where she remained until the 1980s. Giannini is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery
, in Colma, CA.
and Kearny, in downtown San Francisco, is named for Giannini. A.P. Giannini Middle School, which opened in the Sunset District of San Francisco, in 1954, is named after him, also. Other places and groups named after Giannini include The Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics
and the building that houses the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, at the University of California, Berkeley
.
The U.S. Postal Service honored Giannini's contributions to American banking by issuing a 21¢ postage stamp
bearing his portrait, in 1973. A ceremony to mark the occasion was held near his former home, in San Mateo.
TIME
magazine named A.P. Giannini one of the "builders and titans" of the 20th century. He was the only banker named to the Time 100
, a list of the most important people of that century, as assembled by the magazine.
Walter Huston
's bank president in Frank Capra
's 1932 film, American Madness
, was based largely on A.P. Giannini.
The Italian-American banker played by Edward G. Robinson
in House of Strangers
(1949), was also loosely based on Giannini.
American Banker
magazine recognized him as one of the five most influential bankers of the 20th Century.
In 2004, the Italian
government honored Giannini with an exhibition and ceremony in its Parliament
, to mark the centennial of his founding of the Bank of Italy. The exhibition was the result of the collaboration of the Ministry of Finance, the Smithsonian Institution
, Italian Professor Guido Crapanzano and Peter F. De Nicola, an American collector of "Giannini" memorabilia.
In 2010, Giannini was inducted into the California Museum Hall of Fame.
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
, was the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
founder of Bank of America
Bank of America
Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...
.
Biography
Giannini's parents were ItalianItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
immigrants
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, originally from Favale di Malvaro near Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, Liguria
Liguria
Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions. Its capital is Genoa. It is a popular region with tourists for its beautiful beaches, picturesque little towns, and good food.-Geography:...
. He attended Heald College
Heald College
Heald College is a for-profit, business-career college with multiple campuses in the Western United States. Prior to its acquisition by Corinthian Colleges Heald was a non-profit private College....
, in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. He started in business as a produce broker, commission merchant and produce dealer for farms in the Santa Clara Valley. He was extremely successful in that business, and sold his interest to his employees and retired at the age of 31 to administer his father-in-law's estate. He later became a director of the Columbus Savings & Loan in which his father-in-law owned an interest. At the time, banks were run for the benefit of the wealthy and the well-connected. Giannini observed a real opportunity to service the increasing immigrant population that were without a bank. At loggerheads with the other directors who did not share his sentiment, he quit the board in frustration and decided to start his own bank.
He founded the Bank of Italy
Bank of Italy (USA)
The Bank of Italy was founded in San Francisco, California, USA, in 1904 by Amadeo Giannini. It grew by a branch banking strategy to become the Bank of America, the world's largest commercial bank with 493 branches in California and assets of $5 billion in 1945....
in San Francisco on October 17, 1904. The bank was housed in a converted saloon directly across the street from the Columbus Savings & Loan as an institution for the "little fellow". It was a new bank for the hardworking immigrants other banks would not serve. He offered those ignored customers savings accounts and loans, judging them not by how much money they already had, but by their character.
Deposits on that first day totaled $8,780. Within a year, deposits soared above $700,000 ($13.5 million in 2002 dollars). The 1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
and fires leveled much of the city. In the face of widespread devastation, Giannini set up a temporary bank, collecting deposits, making loans, and proclaiming that San Francisco would rise from the ashes.
Immediately after the earthquake, he moved the vault's money to his home outside the fire zone in then-rural San Mateo
San Mateo, California
San Mateo is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of approximately 100,000 , it is one of the larger suburbs on the San Francisco Peninsula, located between Burlingame to the north, Foster City to the east, Belmont to the south,...
, 18-miles by horse and wagon. The wagon used to transport the money was actually a garbage wagon, owned by Hayward resident Giobatta Cepollina, also a native of the Genoa area in Italy (Loano). The cargo was disguised beneath garbage to protect against theft. The fires severely heated the vaults of other big banks. Opening them immediately would ruin the money, so they were kept closed for weeks. Because of this, Giannini was one of the few who was able to provide loans. Giannini was forced to run his bank from a plank across two barrels in the street. Giannini made loans on a handshake to those interested in rebuilding. Years later, he would recount with pride that every single loan was repaid. As further testament to the trust Giannini garnered in the local community, as a reward to the local garbage man for helping to transport the bank's reserves, Giannini agreed to give the man's son his first job with the bank when he came of age. Giannini kept his promise, hiring young Frank Joseph Cepollina at age 14. Cepollina later retired from the bank at age 41.
By 1916, Giannini had expanded and opened several other branches. Giannini believed in branch banking as a way to stabilize banks during difficult times as well as expand the capital base. He bought banks throughout California and eventually had more than five hundred branches throughout the state.
In 1928, Giannini approached Orra E. Monnette
Orra E. Monnette
Orra Eugene Monnette was an attorney, author and banker. Monnette was also the Founder of the Bank of America, L.A., but his contribution to the organization is often overlooked in its corporate history.-Early Life:...
, president and chairman of the Bank of America, Los Angeles
Bank of America, Los Angeles
The Bank of America, Los Angeles was established in 1923 by Orra E. Monnette, emerging from a series of mergers between Los Angeles based banks between 1909 and 1923. The formation of BoA L.A...
, about a merger of the two financial institutions. Upon finalizing the merger, Giannini and Monnette concurred that the Bank of America
Bank of America
Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...
name idealized the broader mission of the new bank. The new institution continued under Giannini's chairmanship until his retirement in 1945; Monnette retained his Board seat and Officer's position. Prior to Monnette's creation of the Bank of America Los Angeles network, most banks were limited to a single city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
or region
Region
Region is most commonly found as a term used in terrestrial and astrophysics sciences also an area, notably among the different sub-disciplines of geography, studied by regional geographers. Regions consist of subregions that contain clusters of like areas that are distinctive by their uniformity...
. Monnette was the first to create a system of centralized processing, bookkeeping and cash delivery. By diversifying the scope of community that the Bank of America served following its merger, the institution was better prepared to ride out minor, local economic issues.
Giannini is credited as the inventor of many modern banking practices. Most notably, Giannini was one of the first bankers to offer banking services to middle-class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
Americans, rather than the upper class
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
. He also pioneered the holding company structure and established one of the first modern trans-national institutions.
Giannini helped nurture the motion picture and wine industries in California. He loaned Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
the funds to produce Snow White
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full...
, the first full-length, animated motion picture to be made in the US. During the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, he bought the bond
Bond (finance)
In finance, a bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and, depending on the terms of the bond, is obliged to pay interest to use and/or to repay the principal at a later date, termed maturity...
s that financed the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean. As part of both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1, the structure links the city of San Francisco, on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, to...
. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he bankrolled industrialist Henry Kaiser
Henry J. Kaiser
Henry John Kaiser was an American industrialist who became known as the father of modern American shipbuilding. He established the Kaiser Shipyard which built Liberty ships during World War II, after which he formed Kaiser Aluminum and Kaiser Steel. Kaiser organized Kaiser Permanente health care...
and his enterprises which supported the war effort. After the War, he visited Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and arranged for loans to help rebuild the war-torn Fiat
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
factories. Giannini also gave capital to William Hewlett
William Reddington Hewlett
William Redington Hewlett was an engineer and the co-founder, with David Packard, of the Hewlett-Packard Company . He was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan where is father taught at the Univerisy of Michigan Medical School...
and David Packard
David Packard
David Packard was a co-founder of Hewlett-Packard , serving as president , CEO , and Chairman of the Board . He served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1969–1971 during the Nixon administration...
to help form HP or Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
. At this time, HP made oscilloscope
Oscilloscope
An oscilloscope is a type of electronic test instrument that allows observation of constantly varying signal voltages, usually as a two-dimensional graph of one or more electrical potential differences using the vertical or 'Y' axis, plotted as a function of time,...
s.
Giannini founded another company, Transamerica Corporation
Transamerica Corporation
Transamerica Corporation is a holding company for various life insurance companies and investment firms doing business primarily in the United States. It was acquired by the Dutch financial services conglomerate AEGON in 1999.-History:...
, as a holding company for his various interests, including Occidental Life Insurance Company. At one time, Transamerica was the controlling shareholder in Bank of America. They were separated by legislation enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1956, when Congress passed the Bank Holding Company Act, which did not allow bank holding companies to involve themselves in industrial activities.
Upon Giannini's death in 1949, his son Mario Giannini, afflicted with polio in his youth, assumed leadership of the bank;,and Giannini's daughter, Claire Giannini Hoffman (1905–1997), took her father's seat on the Bank's Board of Directors, where she remained until the 1980s. Giannini is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery
Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma
Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, California is an American Roman Catholic cemetery operated by the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Established in 1887 on of a former potato farm, it is the oldest and largest cemetery established in Colma to serve the needs of San Francisco...
, in Colma, CA.
Legacy
The large plaza of the Bank of America Building, at California StreetCalifornia Street (San Francisco)
California Street is a major thoroughfare in San Francisco, California. Fifty-four blocks of California Street, from Van Ness Avenue westward to 32nd Avenue, comprised the last major leg of the final 1928 alignment of the Lincoln Highway, the first road across America, leading out to the highway's...
and Kearny, in downtown San Francisco, is named for Giannini. A.P. Giannini Middle School, which opened in the Sunset District of San Francisco, in 1954, is named after him, also. Other places and groups named after Giannini include The Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics
The Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics
The Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics was founded in the 1920s from a $1.5 million gift to the University of California from the Bancitaly Corporation in honor of its founder, A.P. Giannini. This fund has now grown to $20 million that is used to promote and support research on the...
and the building that houses the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
.
The U.S. Postal Service honored Giannini's contributions to American banking by issuing a 21¢ postage stamp
Postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
bearing his portrait, in 1973. A ceremony to mark the occasion was held near his former home, in San Mateo.
TIME
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine named A.P. Giannini one of the "builders and titans" of the 20th century. He was the only banker named to the Time 100
Time 100
Time 100 is an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, as assembled by Time. First published in 1999 as a result of a debate among several academics, the list has become an annual event.-History and format:...
, a list of the most important people of that century, as assembled by the magazine.
Walter Huston
Walter Huston
Walter Thomas Huston was a Canadian-born American actor. He was the father of actor and director John Huston and the grandfather of actress Anjelica Huston and actor Danny Huston.-Life and career:...
's bank president in Frank Capra
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
's 1932 film, American Madness
American Madness
American Madness is a 1932 American film directed by Frank Capra and starring Walter Huston as a New York banker embroiled in scandal. The story thematically anticipates Capra's 1946 classic It's a Wonderful Life, in which Capra repeats the "run on the bank" scene...
, was based largely on A.P. Giannini.
The Italian-American banker played by Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo...
in House of Strangers
House of Strangers
House of Strangers is a film noir, and is the first of three film versions of Jerome Weidman's novel I'll Never Go There Anymore, each scripted by Phillip Yordan...
(1949), was also loosely based on Giannini.
American Banker
American Banker
American Banker is a daily trade newspaper covering the financial services industry. Founded in 1836and based in New York, American Banker has approximately 50 reporters and editors in six U.S. cities who monitor developments and breaking news affecting banks...
magazine recognized him as one of the five most influential bankers of the 20th Century.
In 2004, the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
government honored Giannini with an exhibition and ceremony in its Parliament
Parliament of Italy
The Parliament of Italy is the national parliament of Italy. It is a bicameral legislature with 945 elected members . The Chamber of Deputies, with 630 members is the lower house. The Senate of the Republic is the upper house and has 315 members .Since 2005, a party list electoral law is being...
, to mark the centennial of his founding of the Bank of Italy. The exhibition was the result of the collaboration of the Ministry of Finance, the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
, Italian Professor Guido Crapanzano and Peter F. De Nicola, an American collector of "Giannini" memorabilia.
In 2010, Giannini was inducted into the California Museum Hall of Fame.
Further reading
- Josephson, MatthewMatthew JosephsonMatthew Josephson was an American journalist and author of works on nineteenth-century French literature and twentieth-century American economic history.-Biography:...
, "The Money Lords; the great finance capitalists, 1925-1950", New York, Weybright and Talley, 1972. - Felice A. Bonadio: A.P. Giannini: A Biography: Banker of America, University of California Press, 1994, ISBN 0-520-08249-4
- Evans, Sir Harold:'They Made America', 2004 Back Bay pubs / PBS