Business & Finance: 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¢ 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.