Bank of Italy Bank of America
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Perhaps you've heard of an Amadeo Giannini? According to Wikipedia, Amadeo Giannini...
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...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.
...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.
According to the book Banker of America:
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Giannini knew from the start that persuading North Beach Italians to deposit their savings in his bank would be an uphill battle. In addition to their preference for dealing strictly in gold, most were deeply suspicious of banks and lacked confidence in the people who either owned or managed them. North Beach Italians had ample reason for their distrust of financial institutions. Back in 1878, for example, a small neighborhood bank, the French Mutual, went into bankruptcy, wiping out the hard-earned savings of scores of Italian depositors. This calamity left a deep impression on the collective memory of the community. Rather than put their trust in a bank, most North Beach residents preferred to keep their savings safely at home, where it was hoarded in cans, jars, and mattresses.
Anything ring with familiarity? Back then all other states save for California outlawed branch banking. Interstate banking was also not allowed back then either.
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At some point, Giannini set his eyes on Wall Street. Apparently Bank of America was found to be an ideal target for a merger, takeover or acquisition.
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Sometime toward the end of 1927 Belden found the kind of large, well-connected bank he felt certain Giannini was looking for: the 116-year-old Bank of America, successor to the Bank of the United States, which had been founded in 1812 and later grew to financial prominence as one of the leading banks of New York. Located at 66 Wall Street, Bank of America occupied the lower five floors of its own thirty-two story, spiral-topped skyscraper that the New York Times had described as "the best known in greater New York and an architecture purely American." Although in recent years Bank of America had experienced serious losses, it was still valuable property, primarily because of its historic reputation and eight city branches with total deposits of $l00 million.
The point ...one might learn a lot about today by looking at "the origins". The writing on was on the wall apparently not only since the "Great Depression" but even in 1939. What were they REALLY up to?
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When one realizes that approximately 50 per cent of the farm lands in Central and Northern California are controlled by one institution—the Bank of America—the irony of these "embittered" farmers deeding their "homes" against strikers becomes apparent. [Source:
Factories In the Field by Carey McWilliams.]
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