Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Amadeo Peter Giannini: America's Greatest Banker, Saluted by Bank of America

The ANNOTICO Report

Charlotte, North Carolina is the Headquarters of BANK OF AMERICA after it absorbed Nations Bank (284 Billion), and became only the second largest Financial Institution in the US behind CitiBank,  and ranks 12th on the Fortune 500.

So it is natural that Charlotte NC would take note of the SF Earthquake, which was the beginning of Bank of America, then known as the Bank of Italy, and salute America's greatest banker, Amadeo Peter Giannini.

 

REMEMBERING AMERICA'S GREAT PIONEER BANKER

The Charlotte Sun Herald

Bob Fliss

April 25, 2006

There's a kind of genius that consists of originating ideas that future generations will take for granted.

April 18 marked the centenary of the San Francisco earthquake and fire. This anniversary is also a good time to recall the career of America's greatest banker, Amadeo Peter Giannini.

Giannini originated a host of modern banking practices -- beginning with the idea that everyone should be able to keep their money in a bank. He also pioneered easy bank credit for working people, including home mortgages and auto loans.

Banks, a century ago, got most of their money from wealthy depositors and loaned it on low-risk business ventures.

Giannini was born in San Jose in 1870, the son of Genoese immigrants. Like many Italian-Americans, he initially made a living in the produce business.

In his early 30s, Giannini decided to look for a new challenge. He sold his produce company and joined the board of a San Francisco thrift, where he quickly alienated the other directors by insisting that working folks were worthy credit risks.

He soon realized that the only way to prove his point was to start his own bank. In 1904, he raised $150,000 and opened the Bank of Italy in a former saloon, thoughtfully hiring the barkeep as an assistant teller.

Two years later, San Francisco was leveled. Giannini hid $2 million in cash and securities in a vegetable cart. On the docks of the North Beach district, he set up an office consisting of two barrels and a plank. While other local institutions dithered, Bank of Italy made desperately needed rebuilding loans.

The disaster was Giannini's finest hour, but he remained a genteel maverick of the financial world for the rest of his long career. For example, Giannini was one of the first bankers to finance the motion picture industry, even bailing out Walt Disney when he ran $2 million over budget on "Snow White."

Following a series of transactions, Bank of Italy was merged into then-New York-based Bank of America in 1928. When Giannini died in 1949, it was the largest bank in the country.

Today, Bank of America is just about everywhere, following its merger with NationsBank in 1998. It's the second-largest financial services company in the nation, behind Citigroup, and ranks 12th on the Fortune 500.

Remarkably, Giannini never sought a great personal fortune. His estate was valued at less than $500,000, a tidy sum in 1949 dollars, but nowhere near enough to place him among the richest Americans of his time.

The U.S. Postal Service honored Giannini with a stamp in 1973, and Time magazine in 1998 named him among the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

A businessman of integrity and vision, Amadeo Giannini was truly a hero of free enterprise.

 

The ANNOTICO Reports are Archived at:

Italy at St Louis: http://www.italystl.com