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Okay, we're just going to make a quick stop, girl. That is literally the biggest lie I tell myself because one quick stop turns into picking up tu gente, grabbing snacks, loading up everybody's stuff, y diario pente, and vamos en una aventura. Yes, que a veces the best adventures are the ones that you make up along the way. That's why the 2026 Nissan Rogue is ready for wherever the day takes you with intelligent all-wheel drive and five drive modes. Plus, with a 12.3 inch display.
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Also on the card is former WWE Champion Jay Kager and the debut of former UFC Heavyweight Chris Barnett. You can watch Power Slap Twenty Three for free on Power Slap's YouTube channel Thursday, September Seventeenth, for the first time from Texas. Power Slap's biggest card of the year. Upgrade to Elite Checking from America's Christian Credit Union and earn up to three point five percent APY, plus everyday perks and access to your paycheck up to two days early with Early Pay. Don't settle.
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Membership eligibility. NCUA insured. This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. October is Italian American Heritage Month, and all month long, we're celebrating the Italian Americans who helped shape our nation, from Columbus to Capra. When we think of American finance, we think of names like J.P.
Morgan, David Rockefeller, or Charles Merrill, the co-founder of Merrill Lynch. Few people think of Amadeo Pietro Giannini, but A.P., as he was known, was arguably the most influential banker in our history. Here's the history guy and the editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine, Steve Forbes. You might never have heard of Amadeo Pietro Gionini, but you have likely benefited from one of his innovations, because before A.P. Gionini, much of the world operated much differently than it does today.
Born in San Jose, California, to immigrant parents in 1870, Giannini left business college at the age of 15 because he thought he could do better out in the real world. And he joined his stepfather's produce business, becoming a produce broker in California's rich Santa Clara Valley. By the age of 31, he had become so successful that he was able to sell his stake in his company to his employees and retire. He hoped to indulge his passions for reading and travel. But in 1902, his father-in-law passed away and left his family an interest in the Columbus Saving and Loan Society, which was a small bank in North Beach, California.
And so Giannini was asked to join the bank on its board of directors. But when he got into banking, he was disappointed. He found out that banks really only loaned money to people who were already wealthy and who could provide collateral. He noticed that the bank preferred making large loans to well-heeled clients.
Meanwhile, hardworking immigrants and farmers, the people he knew from his produce business, were being ignored. AP tried to persuade the bank to woo these customers, but they weren't interested. Giannini was convinced that working-class Americans could benefit from things like home loans and auto loans and small business loans. And while they weren't wealthy and couldn't provide collateral, he thought that they were generally trustworthy people who could be counted upon to repay their loans. But he was unable to convince the rest of the board of directors of this vision, and so in 1904 he resigned from the board of directors, and with some investors started his own bank.
He called his new bank the Bank of Italy, and he served those populations that had been previously ignored by banks. In this case, largely Italian American working class immigrants in San Francisco's North Beach community. He offered this population accounts and loans, and he based his loans not so much on the collateral that they could provide, but on his judgment of their character. This unheard of approach was an immediate success. In the first year, deposits soared, and by 1905, his bank had a respectable $700,000 in deposits.
In 1906, the great San Francisco earthquake hit, and much of the city was leveled in the initial earthquake, and then the fires that came afterwards. Giannini's bank, the Bank of Italy, which was housed in a converted saloon building, took real damage in the earthquake. But before the fires could come, he loaded all the deposits from the vault and the bank records in a wagon and took them out of town to his residence, where they would be safe from the fire. He did that in a garbage wagon and ordered the. What he was doing to deter thieves, that decision to protect the deposits ended up being monumental.
While larger banks had vaults that would protect their deposits in the fire, when a fire burned over one of those vaults, it would be several weeks before it cooled down enough that you could open it. And most of their buildings were destroyed, and so the banks were unable to open. But the destroyed city was in desperate need of capital to rebuild, and because he had protected his deposits and records, Giannini could open up right away. Initially, just using two beer barrels and a As a desk, he started serving his own depositors and making new loans. Because of the devastation, a lot of things have been destroyed, including people's records and even identification.
And so, many of those loans Giannini made on nothing but a handshake and a smile. And yet, he was very proud to say later that every one of those loans was repaid. And the Bank of Italy played a major and important role in helping to rebuild the city of San Francisco, and at the same time increased trust in the community in his bank. And it was largely because his bank focused on smaller, middle-class depositors that the Bank of Italy was able to withstand the 1907 bankers' panic, which caused many other banks to close their doors. Dieneini was a pioneer of branch banking in America.
He saw it as a way to get closer to the community, to expand the depositor base, and to protect banks from instability. He studied the system that was used in Canada, and so in 1909, when the state of California changed the law and authorized the opening of branch banks, he immediately opened a bank in San Jose. By 1919, the Bank of Italy was the United States' first statewide branch banking system, with 28 branches in the state of California. Giannini made his success serving underserved communities, like immigrant communities and small businesses. He believed that money should not sit idle and that it should benefit everyone.
And his efforts not only greatly impacted growth in the American West, but banking policy. If, for example, you've ever had a monthly repayable home or auto loan, then you have A.P. Giannini to thank for that innovation. Prior to Giannini's vision, banking in America was generally a service that was only offered to the very wealthy. But Giannini himself was not a fan of great wealth.
His banks were usually owned by the employees. He often didn't accept a salary, and when he was offered a large bonus one year of over a million dollars, he quickly donated it to the University of California and created the Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics. Giannini never wanted to be controlled by wealth. He never made more than fifty thousand dollars a year. That was by choice.
He once said, "No man owns a fortune; it owns him." When he passed away in 1949, he left an estate of just $500,000.
Now, that was not a small sum at the time, but it was far less than the millions that he could have earned had he wanted to. Giannini's actions affected America in so many ways. Bank of America loans helped develop the wine industry. During the Great Depression, AP bought the whole bond issue, which financed construction of the Golden Gate Bridge at great risk to his bank. He financed the big Hollywood studios, including MGM, Columbia, and Twentieth Century Fox, during their early years.
Giannini saved Walt Disney from bankruptcy. Disney's radical idea of an animated feature film, Snow White, had run enormously over budget. The Avay loans allowed Disney to complete the film, which became a huge success. In 1939, he made a loan to two inventors who wanted to build oscilloscopes, and they used that money to start a company that originally sold testing equipment. The names were William Hewitt and Dave Packard, and of course, the company today is called HP.
And Giannini never forgot his Italian roots. After the Second World War, he arranged loans to help rebuild the destroyed Fiat factories in Italy and rebuild that country's economy. And if his character sounds somewhat familiar, it might be because a director named Frank Capra based a character named George Bailey on Ap Giannini in the 1946 film *It's a Wonderful Life*. Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about—they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community.
Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? And if you're wondering why you've never heard of this Bank of Italy, that might be because in 1930, Giannini merged with another bank in Los Angeles, with the goal of creating branches nationwide. And he decided that the other bank's name more fit the new vision. And so, since 1930, the Bank of Italy has been known as the Bank of America. Giannini showed how, in a free market.
Even the most entrenched, powerful institutions can be successfully challenged by a determined outsider. The son of struggling immigrants created what was then the biggest bank in the world. And a special thanks to the History Guy. My goodness, we learn about who this Italian banker was. He started as a produce man.
He was convinced working-class Americans could be counted on to repay their loans for things like houses and cars, and that proved to be right. The story of A.P. Giannini here on Our American Stories. Spending time outdoors? Then let's talk about skin cancer.
Non-melanoma skin cancers, or NMSCs, including basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, are the most common cancers in the U.S. and can become harder to treat if left undetected. That's why sun protection and timely detection matter. Our sponsor, Regeneron, is raising awareness about advanced NMSCs. Learn more and take the pledge to see a dermatologist.
At let's get real about skin cancer. dot com. Power Slap 23 is live and free on YouTube on Thursday, September 17th. Dana White is bringing Power Slap to Texas for the first time on the campus of Texas Tech University. Two massive title fights headline the card, including Slap fighting legend Wolverine.
Also on the card is former WWE champion J. Kaiser and the debut of former UFC heavyweight Chris Barnett. You can watch Power Slap 23 for free on Power Slap's YouTube channel Thursday, September 17th, for the first time from Texas. Power Slap's biggest card of the year. Upgrade to elite checking from America's Christian Credit Union and earn up to three point five percent APY, plus everyday perks and access to your paycheck up to two days early with Early Pay.
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