Transamerica Corporation Transamerica Corporation is an insurance and investment company in the United States . Transamerica began as the holding company controlled by A. P. Giannini , then head of Bank of America and founder of its predecessor , the Bank of Italy in San Francisco . Transamerica , which also owned the Occidental Life Insurance Company , intended to create a nationwide bank . However , in 1956 , due to the passage of the Bank Holding Company Act , Transamerica Corporation divested itself of its banking concerns , including Bank of America . This left Transamerica with life insurance and property and casualty insurance operations . Over the next 20 years , Transamerica gradually became a diversified conglomerate whose subsidiaries included United Artists ( a major motion picture studio ) , Transamerica Airlines , Budget Rent A Car , and a manufacturer of machinery . In 1972 , construction of the Transamerica Pyramid skyscraper in San Francisco was completed . The company 's headquarters was located in the building for many years , although today , it retains only a small presence in the building . Nevertheless , the company 's logo still depicts the iconic building and still use it on their marketing materials . In the 1980s , Transamerica sold all operations that were not related to its core competency of insurance and other financial services . In the early 1990s , the company briefly entered the UK market . In July 1999 , with Frank C. Herringer as CEO , Transamerica Corporation was acquired by AEGON , an insurance holding company based in the Netherlands , though Transamerica Finance , responsible for commercial lending , was subsequently sold to GE Commercial Finance in 2003 . External link http : //www.transamerica.com/  This bank -related article is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . Categories : Bank stubs In other languages : Deutsch 