Amadeo Giannini
1870 – 1949 American banker, founder of Bank of America
Son of Italian immigrants who founded the Bank of Italy, later Bank of America, and built branch banking aimed at ordinary working people.
- Religion
- Roman Catholic
- Affiliations
- Bank of Italy, Bank of America, Transamerica
Amadeo Pietro Giannini founded the Bank of Italy in San Francisco in 1904 to serve immigrants and working people the big banks ignored. After the 1906 earthquake he famously kept lending from a makeshift desk while other banks stayed shut. He pioneered mass branch banking across California and beyond, and his bank grew into Bank of America, for a time the largest commercial bank in the world. He also helped finance early Hollywood and California agriculture, and he cultivated an image as a banker for the small depositor rather than the wealthy.
In the timeline
- 1904 Founding of Bank of America founder