Amadeo Peter Giannini (1870-1949), American banker from San Francisco, founder of the Bank of America
Amadeo Pietro Giannini (
1870-
1949), born in
San Jose, California, was the founder of
Bank of America. Giannini's parents were
Italian, from
Liguria near
Genoa,
immigrants to the
United States. He attended
Heald College in
San Francisco, California. Giannini opened the
Bank of Italy in a former San Francisco
saloon on
17 October,
1904. Deposits on that first day totaled $8,780. An early difficulty to overcome was the
San Francisco earthquake of
1906. However, the earthquake actually helped Giannini gain something of a loan monopoly. After the earthquake, he moved the vault's money to his home outside the fire zone in then-rural
San Mateo, an 18-mile drive by horse and wagon. The raging fires severely heated the vaults of other big banks which had the money in them. Opening them immediately would ruin the money, so they had to be kept closed for weeks. Because of this, Giannini was one of the few who was able to provide loans at the time. Giannini was forced to run his bank from a plank across two barrels in the street for a time. Giannini made loans on a handshake to anyone who was interested in rebuilding. Years later, he would recount with pride that every single loan was repaid.
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