Bank of America: The Humble Beginnings of a Large Bank

After the devastating earthquake in April 1906, looters roamed the streets of San Francisco. Rescuing gold and silver from his small Bank of Italy, A. P. Giannini gained fame by setting up a makeshift bank on a wharf in the Italian neighborhood of North Beach and making loans to local residents “on a handshake.”

Amadeo Peter Giannini was born in San Jose, California, in 1870. The son of Italian immigrants had an outsized personality and unlimited faith in the American dream. He began by selling fruits and vegetables from a horse-drawn wagon. But he was made for bigger things. When he was 34, he launched a small bank in San Francisco.

At the time, big banks lent only to large businesses, handled deposits of the wealthy, and frowned on aggressive advertising. Most banks at the time regarded people with modest incomes as credit risks not worth the paperwork.

But experience had taught Giannini otherwise: that working class people were no less likely to pay their debts than the wealthy. The novice financier knocked on doors and buttonholed people on the street, persuading his neighbors, many of whom were unbanked immigrants, to deposit their money in his bank—and earn interest. Seeking more customers, the former produce salesman returned to his old haunts—the fertile valleys of California. Town by town, he built the first statewide branching system in the nation.

On November 1, 1930, the Bank of Italy changed its name to Bank of America. By the time Giannini died in 1949, the former single-teller office in North Beach claimed more than 500 branches and $6 billion in assets. It was then the largest bank in the world.