Breaking the Bank: The Decline of Bankamerica - Hardcover

Hector, Gary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316353922 ISBN 13: 9780316353922

Publisher: Little Brown & Co, 1988

Synopsis

A rags-to-riches-to-ruin saga of a powerful banking empire--built by an immigrant's son to serve "the little guy"--tells how billions of dollars were lost and what BankAmerica is doing to pick up the pieces

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

The 1904 founding of the Bank of Italylater BankAmericain a converted San Francisco saloon by A. P. Giannini, an immigrant fruit merchant, was intended to serve the "little fellow." Its spectacular rise as the world's largest and most profitable commercial bank, followed by its recent decline, is recounted here in dramatic and telling detail by Fortune writer Hector. Ahead of its time, BankAmerica's chain of diversified banks offering loans, mortgages, insurance and investments backed by holding companies prospered despite conflicts with government regulators and the Federal Reserve, even recouping losses suffered in the 1929 crash, thanks to loyal small investors of the day. The author traces the political, social and economic changes that affected the corporation after Giannini's death in 1949. Although BankAmerica expanded corporate and international operations, a complacent board and incompetent management riven by internal friction proved unable during the early 1980s to deal with deregulation and the first price plunges in 50 years, according to Hector. With losses and bad or shaky loans in the billions, the bank has narrowly escaped takeovers, which the author envisages as a possible option in the early 1990s.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Hector, like other Forture writers, displays an uncommon level of insight and sophistication, coupled with a readable reportorial style. Unlike Phillip Zweig's Belly Up ( LJ 10/1/85), where details and personalities can obliterate the big picture, this dramatic narrative shows BankAmerica's decline to begin in management failure before it attained the premier slot in U.S. banking in 1977. And unlike James McCollum's Continental Affair (Dodd, 1987), Hector's book educates us in the factors that mark success or failure in bank management. The author's sources are printed ones for the early Giannini years; for the latter two-thirds of the book, his sources are 200 taped interviews. I was convinced by Hector's interpretations, but I am sure that some principals will dispute facts, or interpretation, or both. Janice Dunham, John Jay Coll. Lib., New York
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Little Brown & Co
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0316353922
• ISBN 13: 9780316353922
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320