The bank that changed American banking!

In 1904, in downtown San Jose, a son of Italian immigrants named A.P. Giannini opened a small bank inside a converted saloon on Santa Clara Street. He called it the Bank of Italy, and it wasn’t for the rich — it was for everyone else.

Farmers. Immigrants. Workers who had been turned away from traditional banks. Giannini believed banking should be for the people — and his San Jose branch was one of the first places to prove it could work.

Within decades, that small, inclusive operation became Bank of America — one of the largest financial institutions in the world. But it all started here, in the 408, with a radical idea: that everyday people deserve access to credit, security, and economic opportunity.

The building still stands in San Jose — not just as architecture, but as a reminder that innovation doesn’t always start in a lab. Sometimes, it starts at street level.

WATCH THIS VIDEO ABOUT AP’S INNOVATION: