Amadeo Giannini (6 May 1870–3 June 1949) was an American banker who founded the Bank of America in 1904.
Biography[]
Amadeo Giannini was born in San Jose, California to Italian immigrant parents from Genoa, Liguria, Kingdom of Sardinia. He worked as a produce broker, commission merchant, and producer dealer for Santa Clara Valley farms, and he married the daughter of a real estate magnate. In 1904, he founded the Bank of Italy in San Francisco, converting a saloon into a banking institution for the "little fellow" and for hard-working immigrants that other banks would not serve. In 1909, its first branch outside of San Francisco was established in San Jose, and the bank rapidly expanded nationwide. Giannini helped the motion picture and wine industries in California, buying bonds that financed the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge; he also endorsed the progressive Republican C.C. Young's 1926 gubernatorial bid. During and after World War II, he funded the war effort and the reparations, helping to rebuilt Fiat factories in Italy after the war's end. Giannini died in 1949.