First Interstate Bancorp was a bank holding company based in the United States. Headquartered in Los Angeles, it was the nation's eighth largest banking company.[1]
Although First Interstate Bancorp was taken over by Wells Fargo in 1996, the name (along with the company logo) has continued to be used in the banking world by First Interstate BancSystem, who has been using the name under a franchise agreement since 1984.
History
In 1928, Amadeo Giannini, born in California to Italian immigrant parents, formed a holding company, the Transamerica Corporation, to consolidate his existing financial ventures, which began business with $1.1 billion in assets and both banking and non-banking activities. From the 1930s through the mid-1950s, Transamerica made a number of acquisitions of banks and other financial corporations throughout the western United States, creating the framework for the later First Interstate system.
In 1953, regulators succeeded in forcing the separation of Transamerica Corporation