Amadeo Giannini, The People's Banker
Postage stamp featuring Amadeo Peter Giannini, the people's banker
A. P. Giannini's parents ran a produce shop in San Francisco, and his job was dealing with the farmers. At twenty two he married Clorinda Cuneo, an heiress. By thirty one he decided that he was rich enough, sold his share in the family business to employees, and retired. He thought he'd spend the rest of his life in pursuit of leisure, but he was very wrong.
Next year his father-in-law died, and left him a seat on the board of the Columbus Savings and Loan Society, a local bank that was strongly opposed to loaning money to poor immigrants and small merchants, like his parents. His own principles were the opposite: “A banker worthy of the name should grant credit to anyone. Providing they are honest”. He tried to convince the board that lending money to people who need money was a reasonable business idea, and failed.
Accordingly, Giannini left Columbus S&L in 1904, and, with help from his stepfather and his stepfather's friends, opened his own bank, Bank of Italy, across the street. He went door-to-door in North Beach telling the residents how much safer their money would be in his bank than under their mattress, and many, knowing his reputation for honesty, opened their first banking accounts with him. Bank of Italy was America's first full-service bank offering savings, loans (especially small loans), and commercial checking.
On the morning of the 1906 earthquake and fire he was at home, in San Mateo, with his family. As soon as he realized San Francisco was burning he set out for his parents' grocery shop. Borrowing a wagon from them he emptied the vault, covered the money with oranges and other produce, and moved it back through the burning city to San Mateo.
A few days later, when the ashes were still warm, he came back. On the docks near North Beach Giannini set up a new bank branch - two beer barrels with a board across, and started lending out money to people who lost everything and needed to rebuild. He was the only bank in town that day - the others' vaults were still melting-hot and impossible to unlock.
Later, he said: "At the time of the fire, I was trying to make money for myself. But the fire cured me of that".
His radical ideas did not stop with lending small sums to poor people. Giannini was the first to come up with what is now so obvious we don't even notice it - bank branches, so that banking can reach communities too small to support an independent bank. His bank, known now as Bank of America, also pioneered home mortgages and auto loans. He funded radical and risky endeavors, such as the movie industry and the Golden Gate Bridge. Disney's first full-length animated feature, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" was financed by Bank of America, and so was another venture that other banks thought too risky and uncertain - Disneyland.
Another radical first was encouraging women to do banking. In 1921, just as women got the right to vote, Giannini opened Women's Bank Departments in San Francisco and Los Angeles and hired women, such as Grace S. Stoermer, to run them. There were women running banks before, of course, even in America, but they had to open their own banks to do so. A. P. Giannini was the first American man who hired female bankers.
Besides their main jobs these women directors also did a lot of work for the Italy-America Society promoting another radical idea - that Italians are white.
In 1930 Giannini wanted to retire again, but TransAmerica, the corporation he formed to take over his companies (these no longer included just banking) tried to sell off some of the smaller Bank of America branches, and Giannini saw it as a betrayal of his principles and his depositors. He launched a takeover of his own company, got it back, and led it through Depression and WWII, retiring for the third time in 1945. At that time Bank of America was the largest bank in US.
Four years later, when he died, it was the largest private bank in the world, yet Giannini's own net worth was only half a million dollars, because he gave away multiple millions to worthy causes, such as the school of Agricultural Economics and chair of Italian Culture at UC Berkeley.
Next year his father-in-law died, and left him a seat on the board of the Columbus Savings and Loan Society, a local bank that was strongly opposed to loaning money to poor immigrants and small merchants, like his parents. His own principles were the opposite: “A banker worthy of the name should grant credit to anyone. Providing they are honest”. He tried to convince the board that lending money to people who need money was a reasonable business idea, and failed.
Accordingly, Giannini left Columbus S&L in 1904, and, with help from his stepfather and his stepfather's friends, opened his own bank, Bank of Italy, across the street. He went door-to-door in North Beach telling the residents how much safer their money would be in his bank than under their mattress, and many, knowing his reputation for honesty, opened their first banking accounts with him. Bank of Italy was America's first full-service bank offering savings, loans (especially small loans), and commercial checking.
On the morning of the 1906 earthquake and fire he was at home, in San Mateo, with his family. As soon as he realized San Francisco was burning he set out for his parents' grocery shop. Borrowing a wagon from them he emptied the vault, covered the money with oranges and other produce, and moved it back through the burning city to San Mateo.
A few days later, when the ashes were still warm, he came back. On the docks near North Beach Giannini set up a new bank branch - two beer barrels with a board across, and started lending out money to people who lost everything and needed to rebuild. He was the only bank in town that day - the others' vaults were still melting-hot and impossible to unlock.
Later, he said: "At the time of the fire, I was trying to make money for myself. But the fire cured me of that".
His radical ideas did not stop with lending small sums to poor people. Giannini was the first to come up with what is now so obvious we don't even notice it - bank branches, so that banking can reach communities too small to support an independent bank. His bank, known now as Bank of America, also pioneered home mortgages and auto loans. He funded radical and risky endeavors, such as the movie industry and the Golden Gate Bridge. Disney's first full-length animated feature, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" was financed by Bank of America, and so was another venture that other banks thought too risky and uncertain - Disneyland.
Another radical first was encouraging women to do banking. In 1921, just as women got the right to vote, Giannini opened Women's Bank Departments in San Francisco and Los Angeles and hired women, such as Grace S. Stoermer, to run them. There were women running banks before, of course, even in America, but they had to open their own banks to do so. A. P. Giannini was the first American man who hired female bankers.
Besides their main jobs these women directors also did a lot of work for the Italy-America Society promoting another radical idea - that Italians are white.
In 1930 Giannini wanted to retire again, but TransAmerica, the corporation he formed to take over his companies (these no longer included just banking) tried to sell off some of the smaller Bank of America branches, and Giannini saw it as a betrayal of his principles and his depositors. He launched a takeover of his own company, got it back, and led it through Depression and WWII, retiring for the third time in 1945. At that time Bank of America was the largest bank in US.
Four years later, when he died, it was the largest private bank in the world, yet Giannini's own net worth was only half a million dollars, because he gave away multiple millions to worthy causes, such as the school of Agricultural Economics and chair of Italian Culture at UC Berkeley.