Who was A.P. Giannini?

Amadeo Pietro Giannini was born in San Mateo, California in 1870. The son of Italian immigrants, Giannini succeeded in the wholesale produce business. His attention shifted to banking upon observing that banking practices tended to ignore the needs of what he termed the "little fellows". So in October 1904 Giannini founded the Bank of Italy in a building that had been a saloon in San Francisco. He offered basic deposit account services and granted loans based on his assessment of the prospective borrower's character. 

Now the story gets interesting. Recall that on April 18, 1906, scarcely 18 months from the opening of the Bank of Italy, San Francisco was hit with a disastrous earthquake that leveled the city and killed many. That same day Giannini travelled 18 miles by wagon from his home in San Mateo to the Bank, located in the North Beach neighborhood. He quickly loaded $2 million onto a produce wagon and covered the money with fruits and vegetables and took it back to his home.

Rather than shut down, as most other area bankers did for several weeks, Giannini opened for business in North Beach. Over a plank that rested upon two barrels he accepted deposits and extended credit that was critical to San Franciscans' early efforts to rebuild their city and lives. Giannini took risks and inspired confidence during the dire aftermath of the earthquake. Giannini had constructed a bench of sorts with his plank and barrels. A bench is the latin banco, from where the term bank stems.

He fervently insisted that San Francisco would rise from the ashes. Running a bank totally based on trust, he made his reputation by helping the city rebuild. Later, he expanded the Bank of Italy across California, breaking with the tradition of independent local banks by providing banking services to the Yugolsavian, Russian, Mexican, Portuguese, Chinese, Greek, and other immigrant communities. 

Through the 1920s, the Bank of Italy continued to grow. Then in 1928, Mr Giannini approached a San Francisco banker about a possible merger between the two financial institutions. You may have heard of the bank they formed -- the Bank of America. 

Giannini remained as chairman of Bank of America until 1945. When A.P. Giannini died on June 3, 1949, at age 79, hundreds of "little fellows" attended his funeral.