Ibrahim H - Investigation 2B

Amadeo Giannini
Amadeo Giannini was the founder of the Bank of America and was the inventor of many of the modern banking practices. I first read about Giannini in the book “One Plus One Equals Three”, written by Dave Trott.

The son of Italian immigrants, Giannini was born in San Jose, California, in 1870 (Canada). Amadeo Giannini was the person who saw a demand in a market and worked to fulfil it. He realised that none of the banks in his era would serve the immigrants, and he wanted to create an institution that provides loans and savings accounts to these hardworking immigrants (Who Made America? | Innovators | A. P. Giannini). Most of these immigrants were from Italy, and hence Giannini branded his bank as "The Bank of Italy", to alert the immigrants to this new institution.

In 1906 there was a disastrous earthquake in San Francisco that reduced the city to rubble (Kadlec). There was a subsequent increase in looting. In the midst of all this chaos Giannini loaded $2 million in gold into a wagon and escaped from the city disguised as a vegetable seller; no one pays attention to a vegetable seller (ibid.). He immediately set up a temporary bank near San Francisco and started extending credit. “He based his business on openness and trust, making his reputation by helping the city rebuild” (Who Made America? | Innovators | A. P. Giannini). With many of the other banks closed in the aftermath of the disaster, the Bank of Italy expanded across California and other parts of the US (Kadlec). In 1928 Giannini consolidated all his banks into a giant company he called Transamerica Corporation. In 1930 this was rebranded to the Bank of America, which in the present day is the largest bank in the United States (Who Made America? | Innovators | A. P. Giannini).

Amadeo Giannini was a person who saw a massive gap in the demand and supply of a market and came up with a unique solution to eradicate the gap. Through sheer dedication and cleverness, he was able to form a huge institution. As someone who has an interest in business, this story really inspires me to think of out of the box solutions to existing problems, and hence Amadeo Giannini is a role model for me.