BofA saddens me. It was the bank I grew up with (actually, until they closed down the branch in Willits and automatically transferred me to the new owner without axing me (6 Rivers ?Nat. Bank). They had a history with Cal. They WERE Cal. Used to run Bank Days in the schools to encourage kids to save. Friendly folks. ..
Corporate history
The Bank of America organization that exists today is the successor to North Carolina National Bank (marketed as "NCNB"). In 1998, NationsBank acquired BankAmerica and adopted the name of the acquired bank, renaming the corporation "Bank of America", and retaining Charlotte, North Carolina as its headquarters.
[edit] Bank of Italy
The Bank of Italy was founded in San Francisco by Amadeo Giannini in 1904, based on catering to immigrants. Armadeo was raised by the Fava/Stanghellini family when his father was shot while trying to collect on a $10.00 debt. When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck, Giannini was able to get all of the deposits out of the bank building and away from the fires.
In 1922, Giannini established Bank of America and Italy in Italy by buying Banca dell'Italia Meridionale, itself only established in 1918.
In the late 1920s, Giannini approached Orra E. Monnette, President and founder of Bank of America, Los Angeles, about a merger between the two entities. The Los Angeles based bank had exhibited strong growth throughout the 1920s, due in part to its success in developing an advanced branch banking system. The merger was completed in early 1929 and took the name Bank of America. The combined company was headed by Giannini with Monnette serving as co-Chair.
[edit] Growth in California
Giannini sought to build a national bank, expanding into most of the western states as well as into the insurance industry, under the aegis of his holding company, Transamerica Corporation. The passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, prohibited banks from owning non-banking subsidiaries such as insurance companies. Bank of America and Transamerica were separated, with the latter company continuing in the insurance business. However, federal banking regulators prohibited Bank of America's interstate banking activity, and Bank of America's domestic banks outside California were forced into a separate company that eventually became First Interstate Bancorp, which was acquired by Wells Fargo and Company in 1996. It was not until the 1980s with a change in federal banking legislation and regulation that Bank of America was again able to expand its domestic consumer banking activity outside California.
These technologies also allowed credit cards to be linked directly to individual bank accounts. In 1958, the bank introduced the BankAmericard, which changed its name to VISA in 1975.[11] A consortium of other California banks came up with Master Charge (now MasterCard) in order to compete with BankAmericard.
[edit] Expansion outside of California (The end of BoA)
Bank of America Corporate Center, located in the center of uptown Charlotte, North Carolina.Following the passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1967, BankAmerica Corporation was established for the purpose of owning Bank of America and its subsidiaries.
en.wikipedia.org
AP..also wiki
Giannini's parents were Italian, from Liguria, near Genoa, immigrants to the United States. He attended Heald College, in San Francisco, California. His first occupation was as a commission merchant and produce dealer for farms in the Santa Clara Valley. In that position he found established banks unwilling to take on his or the farmers business. Giannini opened the Bank of Italy in a former San Francisco saloon on 17 October, 1904. Deposits on that first day totaled $8,780.[1] 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.[citation needed]
BofA Building, SF..."Mr. SF Herb Caen" called it "Banker's Heart".
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