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Bank of America, formerly known as the Bank of Italy, was founded in San Francisco, California, United States, on October 17, 1904, by Amadeo Pietro Giannini. By 1945, it had grown through a strategy of expanding branches to become the world's largest commercial bank with 493 branches in California and assets totaling $5 billion. after Amadeo Pietro Giannini saw an approaching fire and relocated the bank assets to San Mateo home using a horse drawn cart. In 1909, the bank began opening branches in other cities, beginning with San Jose. It had 24 branches by 1918, at which time it was the first statewide branch banking system.

The Bank of Italy merged with the smaller Bank of America, Los Angeles in 1928. Giannini's life and his many innovations in banking figure prominently in Jim McKelvey, The Innovation Stack (Penguin, 2020).

Amadeo Giannini and the Bank of Italy were the basis for the classic 1932 Frank Capra movie American Madness, from the original screenplay Faith by Robert Riskin.

Bank of America merged with NationsBank of Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1998. While NationsBank was the nominal survivor, the merged bank took the Bank of America name and operates under the original charter for Bank of Italy. It also merged with Fleet Boston in April 1st, 2004, making it a bank with trillion dollar assets.

See also

  • Old Bank of America Building (San Jose, California) - Bank of Italy
  • Bank of Italy, Merced
  • Bank of Italy (Visalia, California)
  • Bank of Italy (Tracy, California)
  • Bank of Italy (Fresno, California)
  • Bank of Italy - disambiguation to landmark buildings
  • Banca d'America e d'Italia, sister bank

References

Further reading

  • Josephson, Matthew, "The Money Lords; the great finance capitalists, 1925-1950", New York, Weybright and Talley, 1972.
  • National Historic Landmarks: Bank of Italy Building, San Francisco
  • Bank of Italy Building (1917), Fresno