Worth his Weight in Gold: Giannini Takes on the Business of Banking

At the age of 32, after making a handsome profit in produce and having stepped back from the business world, Giannini thought he would have more time to devote to his own interests – reading, traveling and the like. But, fate would have other plans. He quickly began receiving offers from other businesses eager to snap him up, but there was one in particular that caught his attention; the Columbus Savings & Loan Association asked Giannini to join their board of directors.

The Columbus S&L was a modest bank headquartered in the Italian section of North Beach. Giannini decided to accept their offer, in the hopes that the position would allow him to both hold a prestigious title and also to help society. For the next two years, Giannini devoted himself to the bank and things seemed to be progressing smoothly. That is, until he began to encounter difficulties with the association’s other directors.

Giannini wanted to help hardworking immigrants like his parents, but the Columbus S&L had little interest in extending loans to anyone except businessmen and the already wealthy. In other words, you could only get money if you already had some money. This didn’t make sense to Giannini. However, his pleas to lend to the working class fell on deaf ears. And so, in 1904, Giannini raised $150,000 from his stepfather and ten other friends, and opened the Bank of Italy.

The Bank of Italy was located in a converted saloon right across the street from the Columbus S&L; even the saloon’s bartender was kept on in the role of assistant teller. It might not have been the most professional of ventures – he solicited business door to door at a time when doing so was considered unethical – but that didn’t matter. The Bank of Italy allowed Giannini to fulfill his dream of helping the working class. Within one year, deposits to this ‘bank for the little guy’ were exceeding $700,000.

By 1906, deposits to the Bank of Italy had surpassed $1 million. Giannini seemed to be on top of the world when disaster struck. On April 18, 1906, San Francisco was hit by one of the largest earthquakes in the city’s history; much of the city was destroyed. Whereas other banks took as long as one month to reopen, Giannini had reopened the Bank of Italy in just six days. He may have been operating from just a plank stretched across two barrels in the street, but for those who needed loans – and now, more than ever – that he was operating was celebration enough.

Over the next ten years, Giannini would open several other Bank of Italy branches throughout the city. In 1928, he approached the President of the Bank of America, Los Angeles, about a possible merger. When the merger was finalized, Giannini remained chairman of the new institution, but agreed to keep the name Bank of America as it was symbolic of the new bank’s broader mission.

Under Giannini’s leadership, the new Bank of America quickly became one of the only banks to reach beyond a single city. He founded TransAmerica as a holding company for his widening interests, which even included some overseas banks. TransAmerica was also the controlling shareholder of the Bank of America for a period, until the U.S. Congress stepped in to break it up.

He may have gained many opponents on his rise to the top for his use of unconventional tactics and his focus on the working class, but even as his monopoly expanded, it was hard to make the case that his actions were against the public interest. Today, as banks continue to diversify the range of services they provide, they are carrying out the legacy that was left behind by Giannini.



Worth his Weight in Gold: Giannini Takes on the Business of Banking

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