First Interstate Security history

Transamerica's origins can be traced to 1904, when A.P. Giannini opened the Bank of Italy in San Francisco with $150,000.

By 1909, Giannini's Bank of Italy had more than $2.5 million at its disposal.

In 1928, soon after the Federal Reserve's orders were carried out, Bank of Italy and BancItaly stocks were dumped on Wall Street by Giannini's banking rivals in order to lower the value of the Californian's banks.

In 1948, the Federal Reserve filed a suit against Transamerica charging that the company's interstate banking affiliations constituted a potential monopoly.

The case was resolved in 1953, when a United States Court of Appeals ruled that Transamerica's holdings did not consitute a monopoly.

The Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 placed new restrictions on companies like Transamerica.

The United California Bank, which had been formed when the California Bank and the First Western Bank and Trust Company merged in 1961, was the jewel in Western's crown at this time.

The Western Bancorporation Mortgage Company was founded in 1974.

In 1979, the Western Bancorp Venture Capital Company was formed, further diversifying the financial operations of Western Bancorporation.

By 1981, our company had grown to 10 branches.

Spoor Behrins Campbell and Young, a financial planning company, was also acquired in 1983.

In 1984, First Interstate branched into merchant banking with the purchase of Continental Illinois Ltd.; equipment leasing with the acquisition of the Commercial Alliance Corporation of New York; and broadened its mortgage banking activities by acquiring the Republic Realty Mortgage Corporation.

In order to improve up-to-the-minute information on Western's millions of customer accounts, the data processing company developed the Teller Item Processing Systems (TIPS). By 1985, this system was processing 750,000 transactions per day.

In 1987, First Interstate Bank of Texas encountered serious problems with bad debt.