Amadeo Peter Giannini was born May 6, 1870, in San Jose, California to Italian immigrant parents. He was the first son of Luigi Giannini and Virginia Giannini. Luigi Giannini immigrated to the United States from Favale di Malvaro near Genoa, Liguria in the Kingdom of Sardinia (later part of Italy) to prospect in response to the California Gold Rush of 1849. Luigi continued in gold during the 1860s and returned to Italy in 1869 to marry Virginia, bringing her to the US and settling in San Jose. Luigi Giannini purchased a 40-acre farm at Alviso in 1872 and grew fruits and vegetables for sale. Four years later Luigi Giannini was fatally shot by an employee over a pay dispute. His widow Virginia, with two children and pregnant with a third child, took over operation of the produce business. In 1880, Virginia married Lorenzo Scatena (1859–1930) who began L. Scatena & Co.
Education
Giannini attended Heald College but realized he could do better in business than at school.
By the age of 17 Amadeo was making regular business trips for the company. Amadeo, later to be known as A. P., exhibited at 17 many of the traits that would characterize his career as a banker. He worked long hours, was a careful observer of the business environment, and extended his personal and professional assistance to clients he deemed worthy. His efforts as a travelling commission man were eventually rewarded with a half-interest in Scatena & Co.
After a brief flirtation with reform politics in Long Beach, Giannini began his banking career upon the death of his father-in-law in 1902. Joseph Cuneo died intestate and the family asked A. P. to manage the estate. Among the Cuneo holdings was an interest in a North Beach bank, Columbus Savings and Loan, which had been founded and was controlled by Italian-American John Fugazi. This first bank in the North Beach community preferred to make large loans, a practice which not only encouraged competition and the establishment of another Italian-American bank, but also gave rise to criticism by Giannini, who was a director of the bank. A. P. argued that the bank was not making enough small loans to the area's newcomers. He advised the bank to actively solicit their business.
Failing to convince the board of directors, A. P. resigned from the Columbus Savings and Loan in 1904 and set out to organize a bank which would follow his business strategies. By the summer of 1904 Giannini, along with other businessmen of Italian origin, organized the Bank of Italy, capitalized at $300, 000, half of which was paid in immediately. A major portion of the bank's first day deposits came from small tradesmen who had been actively solicited by A. P. and other members of the bank. Often their ignorance of English or bank procedure required that deposit slips and checks be filled out by the bank's personnel.
The personal reputation and solicitation of Giannini and his associates were the main reason for the bank's growth. Giannini tramped the streets of North Beach explaining in Italian the functions of a bank, his bank, to people who had never used one.
Giannini was making banking services available to people who had either been turned away or ignored by the larger, unfriendly banks. North Beach deposits remained in the community in the form of real estate loans as small as $375 or personal loans as small as $25.
A. P.'s imaginative behavior during the great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 furthered his reputation and that of his bank. Although the quake occurred at 5 a. m., the Bank of Italy opened its doors at 9 o'clock and conducted business as usual. Giannini closed the bank at noon, however, fearing the worst as the fires spawned by the ruptured gas lines spread closer to the financial district. Securing horses and wagons from Scatena & Co., Giannini loaded the bank's cash and gold onto a wagon, hid them beneath a crate of oranges, and transported them to his home outside the city. There he hid the bank's assets in the ash trap of the living room fireplace.
Giannini saw in the city's destruction not only a chance to service his customers but another opportunity for the Bank of Italy. Nine days after the quake a newspaper advertisement announced the temporary location of the bank's operations. The city's larger banks were unable to respond as quickly. Giannini's foresight in removing his bank's cash together with his personal knowledge of his customers' accounts (he needed no records) allowed him to resume operations quickly. Deposits exceeded withdrawals in less than six weeks after the earthquake.
Giannini demonstrated similar ingenuity and foresight when in mid-1907 he picked up rumblings about future financial uncertainty despite the nation's prosperous economy. He began a campaign to increase the bank's gold reserves, build up deposits, and reduce outstanding loans after personal review. Thus, when the financial panic struck the Bank of Italy was able to meet it head on. Its stock of gold piled high in the teller's cage inspired confidence, and the bank did not have to invoke rules limiting withdrawals or requiring advance notice as other, larger institutions did. Once again the bank had weathered a major crisis due to the foresight of A. P. Giannini.
It was this same readiness to listen and to anticipate the future needs of his bank and customers that led Giannini to his greatest achievement-the pioneering of branch banking.
In 1908 Giannini heard several officials extol the virtues of branch banking as a solution to the various defects of American banking and as a means of bringing banks closer to the people. Giannini familiarized himself with Canadian branch banking practices and thus was prepared to act in 1909 when California enacted a law authorizing the establishment of branches. On Columbus Day, 1909, the directors of the Bank of Italy authorized the opening of such a branch in San Jose. When the Bank of Italy acquired control of a local San Jose bank A. P. sought local investors and retained many of the local personnel so that the branch would be seen as part of the community. By 1918 the Bank of Italy had become the first statewide branch banking system in the United States, with 24 branches throughout California and possessing more than $93 million.
The following year Giannini began to develop a transcontinental system. Leaders of New York City's Italian community had sought his assistance in establishing a regularly chartered depository of their own. Using proven techniques, A. P. first acquired the East River National Bank, and later the Banca Meridionale, a branch banking system in Italy. Thus he acquired the first elements in a transcontinental and worldwide banking system. Through reorganization and restructuring of these and other banks Giannini eventually formed the Bank of America, which possessed assets of $6 billion by 1939 and became the world's largest bank in 1945.
Giannini's efforts were not without opposition and hostility. In 1919, for instance, California's superintendent of banks raised objections to his opening of additional branches. He relented only after Giannini was able to convince him of the reasonableness of his motives and the falsity of the "whispering campaign" which had raised the doubts.The last great challenge to Giannini's banking empire came in 1948 when the Federal Reserve began an investigation into charges that his holding company had violated the anti-monopoly provisions of the Clayton Anti-Trust Act. Giannini died on June 3, 1949, however, before the board returned its findings and ordered that his corporate structure be dismantled.
Achievements
Amadeo Peter Giannini is remembered mostly as a founder of the California-based Bank of Italy, later the Bank of America. As financier and banker he transformed the nature of banking in large and small ways; as an Italian-American he became a symbol of legitimate success and a source of practical help to immigrants and an inspiration to their descendants.
The U. S. Postal Service honored Giannini's contributions to American banking by issuing a 21¢ postage stamp bearing his portrait, in 1973. A ceremony to mark the occasion was held near his former home, in San Mateo.
Time magazine named Giannini one of the "builders and titans" of the 20th century. He was the only banker named to the Time 100, a list of the most important people of that century, as assembled by the magazine.
American Banker magazine recognized him as one of the five most influential bankers of the 20th Century.
In 2004, the Italian government honored Giannini with an exhibition and ceremony in its Parliament, to mark the centennial of his founding of the Bank of Italy. The exhibition was the result of the collaboration of the Ministry of Finance, the Smithsonian Institution, Italian Professor Guido Crapanzano and Peter F. De Nicola, an American collector of Giannini memorabilia.
In 2010, Giannini was inducted into the California Hall of Fame.
Views
Quotations:
Amadeo summed up his attitude toward personal wealth: "I don't want to be rich. No man actually owns a fortune; it owns him."
Connections
The rising young businessman married Clorinda Agnes Cuneo in 1892. Her father, Joseph, was one of North Beach's richest men, his fortune having been established in real estate.
