A Conversation With Hugh McColl, the Former CEO of Bank of America

You can count on one hand the number of people who have had as big of an impact on the U.S. bank industry as Hugh McColl has over the past century. The leading banks in this country as you know them today may not even exist without him, at least not in their current form.

It was a different world when McColl entered banking in 1959, as memories of the Great Depression began to fade in bankers' minds and the post-World War II recovery gained steam. Banks at the time weren't allowed to operate across interstate lines, and with rare exception, they couldn't even have branches within a single state.

Fast-forward to today, and the nation's three biggest banks operate branch networks that span the continent. This may have happened without McColl, just as manned flight may have happened without the Wright brothers. But it's the Wright brothers that we look to as the fathers of the modern airline industry, just as it's McColl one should look to as the father of modern American branch banking.

Source: Fool.com