Tech & Biz

Bank of America's Virginia Hammerness, Executives are "Idiots"

by Tina Kells | February 24, 2009 at 10:09 am

621 views | 7 Recommendations | 3 comments

Granddaughter of Bank of America founder A.P. Giannini, 75-year old Virginia Hammerness, chastised current bank executives as "idiots" and said her grandfather must be "rolling over in his grave" over the way they have mismanaged his legacy.

She added that her father, who succeeded her grandfather as bank president and "gave his life for the bank," would have had a similar reaction upon seeing today's decline of the institution.

"I think its totally repulsive," Hammerness said when asked what she thinks of Bank of America now. "What idiots, what kind of idiots are running that bank?"

A.P. Giannini founded the Bank of Italy, which later became known as the Bank of America in 1904 as a reaction to the difficulty he and other immigrants had getting loans and other financing.

Giannini had a novel approach to lending, he looked at character and life plans not credit scores, and Hammerness says that her grandfather often did business of the strength of a handshake.

A.P. Giannini, the man who founded Bank of America in the early 1900s, likely is "rolling over in his grave" over how the company he built has been managed, hypothesizes his granddaughter.
Virginia Hammerness, the 75-year-old heiress to the family’s banking fortune and a big stockholder, told CBS 5 in San Francisco (via Huffington Post) that the bank’s current "idiot" managers’ actions are "totally repulsive." More than that, they’re ruining her family’s legacy.

Giannini founded Bank of America (originally called Bank of Italy) in San Francisco’s North Beach in 1904 because he was upset that banks then usually only lent money and did business with rich clients. He wanted a place where the city’s immigrants could bank, as well. How did he judge each loan candidate? Not on their credit history, for sure. But rather, their character.

Hammerness is both appalled and horrified by the behaviors of the current Bank of America executives, which she considers to be a gross deviation from her grandfathers founding ethics. Still a significant shareholder in the Bank of America, Hammerness is looking for answers.

Speaking specifically to the $121 million in bonuses that Merrill Lynch executives saw fit to award shortly before the merger with a bailout funded Bank of America, her disgust for the way that the family business is now being run is clear.

"They bought it and then, you know, they found out before the deal was consumated that the head of Merrill Lynch paid all those bonuses to people. Bank of America should have said forget it," said Hammerness.

Huge bonuses were not her grandfather's way of doing business, she said.

A.P. Giannini gave away millions, but died with an estate of only $500,000. He turned down a $1.7 million dollar bonus that the bank wanted to give him, saying they should use it to help their customers instead.

Read the rest of the CBS-5 Bank of America interview with Virginia Hammerness

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Roy C

at 11:17 on February 24th, 2009

Yes, the granddaughter has been very critical. I read a book on A. P. Gianini and his role in trying to stop the Great Depression.

His bank, first called "The Bank of Italy", used to give regular working guys in North Beach money to get their fishing business or restaurant started. No one else would, but Giannini was an Italian, the very place where the term "bank" was invented from banchiere, which meant "bencher", from the benches that were placed in a piazza and the "benchers" did business, often plain and simple usury.

Even the double-entry bookkeeping system was created by an Italian monk.

Bank of American screwed up one of my accounts, saying it never existed, even though I had to have it to rent a safe deposit box and I had a passbook savings book with 300 bucks in it.

They had only one person willing to help us and finally she just doled out the 300 dollars.

I have never seen anything like it. WTF?

H H (not verified)

at 18:39 on February 24th, 2009

B of A - not only screwed up their own bank - they are also ruined a great culture at Merrill. Coming through and cutting jobs - but funny enough - not jobs that were "costing" money - rather - they cut "producing" jobs - Bravo B of A - you continue to prove that you have NO Business being in the business that you are trying to get into. Case in point - the President of the United States has to address your company in his speech - Way to Go!!!