United California Bank
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| First Interstate Bank | |
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Formerly called
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| Public | |
| Traded as | : I |
| Fate | Acquired by Wells Fargo |
| Predecessor | spun off from Transamerica Corporation in 1958 |
| Successor |
Wells Fargo First Interstate BancSystem |
| Founded | July 1, 1958 in Los Angeles, California |
| Defunct | April 1, 1996 |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California |
First Interstate Bancorp was a bank holding company based in the United States that was taken over in 1996 by Wells Fargo. Headquartered in Los Angeles, it was the nation's eighth largest banking company.
The name (along with the company logo) has continued to be used in the banking world after the merger by First Interstate BancSystem who had been using the name under a franchise agreement since 1984.
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 and Bank of America under the Clayton Antitrust Act. Transamerica Corporation, a Delaware corporation, petitioned this court to review an order of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System entered against it under Section 11 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 21, to enforce compliance with Section 7 of the Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 18.
The Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 placed new restrictions on companies such as Transamerica. Thus Transamerica's banking operations, which included 23 banks in 11 western states, were spun off as Firstamerica Corporation in 1958. Transamerica continued to pursue its insurance and other operations.
Firstamerica changed its name to Western Bancorporation in 1961. Western expanded steadily in the 1960s, both domestically and overseas, ending the decade with assets of more than $10 billion. The bank's financial services network grew through the 1974 founding of the Western Bancorporation Mortgage Company and the 1979 formation of Western Bancorp Venture Capital Company.
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