Drive Built Bank Of America Create Your Market: A.P. Giannini's hard work brought banking to the people.(LEADERS & SUCCESS)

Byline: J. BONASIA

A.P. Giannini had a clear idea of what made for a successful bank. And it wasn't the big financial wheelers and dealers.

"The little fellow is the best customer that a bank can have," he told his bank's branch managers. "He starts with you and stays with you to the end, whereas the big fellow is only with you as long as he can get something out of you, and when he cannot, he is not for you anymore."

This son of poor Italian immigrants became a big fellow himself. Before Giannini's death in 1949, he helped turn his Bank of America into the nation's largest bank and a model of branch banking.

In business and life, Giannini believed in honesty, hard work and family. That's why he's known for bringing banking services to honest, hard-working families, says Felice Bonadio, historian and author of the 1994 biography "A.P. Giannini, Banker of America."

"It's hard to believe now, but most banks did not do that at the time," Bonadio said.

At age 7, Amadeo Peter Giannini watched as a field worker shot his dad to death in a dispute over a small sum of money. Giannini's mother remarried, and A.P. left school at 14. In his stepfather's wholesale produce firm, he honed his skills and became a partner.