The institution originally founded as the Bank of Italy by Amadeo Giannini in San Francisco eventually grew and changed its name to Bank of America, scaling into a massive national banking franchise through a series of historic interstate mergers and acquisitions. It combined with major financial institutions like NationsBank, absorbing massive retail and commercial banking networks. This continuous nationwide expansion transformed the original localized California institution into one of the largest multinational banking and financial services corporations operating in the world today.