Chapter 1331: Chapter 455: The California Banking War Begins
California has two major banking giants.
One is the Italian Bank founded by Amadei Gianini, which has almost monopolized all banking business in California, except for Hollywood.
The other is Venus Bank, which, when it comes to business volume alone, cannot be compared with the Italian Bank, but Venus Bank is famous for its business, having secured Hollywood financing.
This is what Maurice Rothschild mentioned; now in Hollywood, film production companies need loans almost exclusively from Venus Bank to make movies.
These two giants have been present in California for quite some time, but this year, the situation changed.
That is, the Rothschild family has also turned its focus to California’s banking industry.
They first acquired the Los Angeles National Bank and then, following the development model of the Italian Bank, began to merge with other small and medium-sized banks in California.
They established their own branch network system.
Furthermore, Los Angeles National Bank began entering the film industry, leveraging the status of Jewish filmmakers in Hollywood to compete for Venus Bank’s business.
It can be said that Los Angeles National Bank is now competing for business with the Italian Bank and Venus Bank.
While all Californians were waiting to see how the struggle among these three major banks would begin, a sudden piece of news in the newspaper made them realize that this was not a three-way battle among the three major banks but a four-way rivalry.
It turned out that in today’s "Los Angeles Times" content, it was officially written that New York’s Federal Reserve Bank believes the Italian Bank is involved in monopolistic practices and is preparing to sue the Italian Bank!
The news further stated another point: if the Giani family could sell 51% of their shares in the Italian Bank, they could avoid this lawsuit!
This news shocked the entire California directly.
Everyone was discussing this matter.
But that is not the most important thing; the most important thing is that the stock price of the Italian Bank started to drop.
The Italian Bank is a collective term, just like Venus Bank, but in reality, Venus Bank includes both Venus Bank and Breton Bank.
Similarly, the Italian Bank consists of two publicly traded companies: the New York Italian Bank and the California Italian Bank.
Now that the "Los Angeles Times" published this news, naturally, the "Wall Street Journal" has also published it.
Under such circumstances, the stock price of New York Italian Bank was slashed by half, with a 50% decline, while the California Italian Bank saw a 30% drop.
In the context of a major bull market in the U.S. stock market, such a sharp decline in stock prices for the two publicly traded Italian Banks shows how heavy this blow was to the Italian Bank.
Inside the headquarters of the California Italian Bank located in Los Angeles, chaos had ensued.
"This matter can only be resolved if Mr. Gianini returns personally!"
Crea Gianini sat in the president’s chair, but the bank’s board members no longer cared about Crea Gianini’s dignity and said directly.
The Mr. Gianini he referred to was naturally Amadei Gianini.
Crea Gianini, with short hair and a neat appearance, calmly said, "I have already informed my father about this matter, and he has decided to return to Los Angeles!"
Upon hearing Crea Gianini’s response, everyone in the meeting room breathed a slight sigh of relief; it was Amadei Gianini who initially led them to create the Italian Bank from scratch.
Amadei Gianini was like a towering mountain behind them, with nothing that he couldn’t resolve.
"However, gentlemen, we can’t just wait for my father to return from Italy. When he comes back, are we going to tell him that we did nothing and just waited for him to solve the problem?"
Crea Gianini calmly asked.
The board member who had just mentioned needing Amadei Gianini to solve this problem now turned his gaze to Crea Gianini.
Crea Gianini was the designated successor chosen by Amadei Gianini, and on this matter, everyone agreed because Crea Gianini had already proven he was capable of taking on this role.
However, when the group faced an existential crisis, everyone preferred to trust Amadei Gianini.
"Crea, what do you think?"
Crea Gianini said, "First, we need to determine whether our opponent is only Morgan, or if besides Morgan, do we have other adversaries? Only by knowing who our opponents are can we propose a complete solution!"
Crea Gianini’s words made everyone nod, and at this moment, someone suddenly recalled something and said, "Some time ago, Donnie Block’s brother Cameron Block hosted a ball at his estate, and during this party, Cameron Block mentioned that it was Morgan and Rothschild joining forces!"
Ham Gianini, who had been silent, said, "That’s right, Cameron Block indeed said that at the time!"
Crea Gianini looked at Ham Gianini and asked, "Why have you never told me about this?"
Ham Gianini shrugged and said, "At that time, I just thought Cameron Block was deliberately trying to stir up enmity between us and the Rothschild family, and I believed we shouldn’t let them have their way, so I didn’t mention it."
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