Bankitaly, Bancitaly

Upon the reorganization of the century-old Bank of America last week as the Bank of America National Association, under the wise & facile advice of Amadeo Peter Giannini, the command went forth that stockholders of Giannini's California Bank of Italy and of his National Bancitaly Corp. might purchase BA.NA. stocks, but might not trade or assign their rights to those new securities.

Amadeo Peter Giannini, a Sicilian peasant by ancestry, acts the Roman patrician by nature. He believes himself the guardian as well as the leader of his clients. Because he knows that the ever-expanding activities of his bank and investment corporation tend to stir up speculation in their securities, he warns the unwary.

That is the reason that rights to buy B.A.N.A. stock are not negotiable or transferable. That is the reason why the Bancitaly Corp., with earnings of $30,000,000 last year, has just now declared a quarterly dividend of only 56-c- on its stock. The dividend might have been many times that sum. But paternal Mr. Giannini wants to make it "difficult for speculators to borrow money on his stocks."

The Banks. The interrelation of Mr. Giannini's fiscal organizations seems inexplicable. It is not. As yet there exist only two great organizations, with their activities mainly in California and in New York. Later he hopes to have a web of banks in each of the twelve Federal Reserve bank districts.

In California. First there is the Bank of Italy, which he and his stepfather Lorenzo Scatena organized in 1904. Their first clients were the Italians of San Francisco and the heterogeneous fruit growers of the Sacramento Valley, whose pickings Amadeo Peter Giannini and Lorenzo Scatena had long & honestly been selling at commission. Soon there were Bank of Italy branches in the scattered communities of California.

Early last year, and just before the passage of the McFadden Branch Banking Act which permitted national banks to operate branch offices (TIME, March 7, 1927), Mr. Giannini consolidated his Bank of Italy (101 branches) with the then newly formed Liberty Bank of America (175 branches). The result was the Bank of Italy National Trust & Savings Association with capital of $30,000,000, resources of $115,000,000. The business of its offices, now nearly 300, all in California, requires that one board of management sit constantly in San Francisco, and another in Los Angeles. James Augustus Bacigalupi is president; Lorenzo Scatena, 78, chairman of its directorate. Amadeo Peter Giannini gives it banking advice, in much the same fashion that engineers advise public utilities on their operations.

Subsidiary to B.I.N.T.S.A. and owned share for share by its stockholders is the National Bankitaly Company, which deals in real estate, buys & sells stocks & bonds and other securities and transacts a general business incident to its affiliation with B.I.N.T.S.A. A twelve billion dollar corporation, National Bankitaly Co.'s president is Laurence Mario Giannini, son. of Amadeo Peter Giannini.

B.I.N.T.S.A. and National Bankitaly Co. are California incorporations.

In New York. In 1919 Mr. Giannini's interests formed the Bancitaly Corporation. This is an investment & holding company capitalized for $150,000,000. With funds derived therefrom it has bought stock in more than threescore U. S. and even more foreign banks. The Banca d'America e d'ltalia of Rome, which it controls, alone has branches in 20 Italian cities.

In Manhattan the Bancitaly Corporation controls the Bowery & East River National Bank (A. P. Giannini's brother, Dr. Attilio H. Giannini is president), the Commercial Exchange Bank, and in February bought the 116-year-old Bank of America.

Last week Bank of America stockholders (Bancitaly Corp. being the principal stockholder) voted to reorganize as a national bank--the Bank of America National Association. Coleman Delafield, president) can expeditiously absorb the Bowery & East River National and the Commercial Exchange (which also last week went national).

The Bank of America purchase, within 30 days, brought the Bancitaly Corp. a paper profit of $7,500,000. That is why A. P. Giannini, the philosopher of Bancitaly Corp. activities, last week warned against speculation in its shares.

The Man. Dog-trotting through the acrid-smelling shambles of San Francisco's 1906 earthquake & fire, Amadeo Peter Giannini reached his newly founded Bank of Italy. Flames had not yet reached it. Nor had they yet reached the nearby stables of his stepfather's fruit commission house. The young banker (he was 36 then) hitched a stout horse to a fruit cart and into that cart dumped his bank's specie, currency, securities, books--and deposit slips. Thus was he enabled to set up bank at his home for subverted San Francisco.

Next year, 1907, was panic year all through the U. S. Speculation had been unrestrained. President Roosevelt had condemned it. Businessmen, newspapers and college presidents berated President Roosevelt. Men felt panic coming on, and talked helplessly. On the New York Stock Exchange money brought 75% interest; then 100%. Panic came and money became unobtainable. But not for Banker Giannini in San Francisco. He had his bank vaults and an additional warehouse filled with metallic gold. He could and did pay all demands on him in good coin of the commonwealth. His bank grew.

Of him it is observed, that during a long working day he is seated less than 60 minutes. His body is kinetic, as is his mind. It is an old, old trait in him which drove him--a schoolboy--from bed at midnight to buy & sell fruit with his stepfather, Lorenzo Scatena, on the wharves of San Francisco of the 1880's. From wharves to school he went and from school to the commission house. And always he ranked at the head of his school classes.

The Giannini ancestors went to California from Sicily. They were most recently peasants, country people. And back of the Sicilian peasants is a long history of aggressive marauders--Phoenicians, Greeks, Latins, Carthaginians, Romans, Norsemen, Saracens, Crusaders, Barbary pirates, Italians.

The Gianninis are Sicilians. Their chief, Amadeo Peter Giannini, seems to be more. His stout body, his good appetite, his joy in living, all stir up images of most potent Italian. He has the Corsican touch of leadership, the Lombard's flare for finance, the Florentine's nimble mentality, the Roman's dignity, the Sicilian's slashing pugnacity. Living thus fully in the multiplicity of his inmost traits, he is a happy, contented man.

The Ideals. A contented man is Amadeo Peter Giannini. Long ago he decided that a life's competence was all that he wished from life. And, although the size of that competence has grown necessarily larger as his years have passed, that today, in seeming honesty, is all he wants.

Last year he earned a million and a half dollars on the stock he owned in one of his companies. He gave the money to the University of California for agricultural and allied research.

Regularly 40% of his companies' yearly profits go to his employees. Eventually they will own the corporations. Already several are millionaires, and, of course, they idolize their "Boss."