Chase Manhattan Bank in history

Manhattan part of Chase Manhattan traced its business history back to 1799 when it was form as Manhattan Company.

Part of its original charter also provided for a banking company which was begun as the Bank of Manhattan Company. It was important in financing the early economic development of New York City in the early 1800s. Among its founder members were Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.

In 1877 John Thompson and 4 partners formed Chase National Bank, named for Salmon P. Chase Treasury Secretary under Abraham Lincoln with initial capital $300,000.

In 1927 Chase National Bank became the largest bank in the country with assets of $1 billion.

Throughout the 20th century much of the banks growth came through mergers. The Bank of Manhattan Company bought the Bank of the Metropolis in 1918, and Chase purchased Bank of Manhattan in 1955 and changed its name to the Chase Manhattan Bank. 

Chemical Bank swallowed Chase Manhattan in 1996. By late 1999, Chase was a powerhouse consumer bank and budding investment bank.

On September 13, 2000, Chase Manhattan announced its merger with J.P Morgan and Co.

JP Morgan Chase now positioned as the largest bank in United States by assets, a global financial services behemoth with operations in more than 50 countries. It’s market leader in offering corporations a complete, platform of capital raising advice, trading, and risk management services spanning commercial and investment banking.

In 2004 the combined JP Morgan Chase merged with Bank One. After the merger, the combined JP Morgan and Bank One became number two in the United States banking industry.
Chase Manhattan Bank in history

Early history of J.P Morgan and Company

In 1895 Morgan and Company was reorganized as J.P Morgan and Company by John Pierpont Morgan. 

Before that in 1871, Morgan merged with Drexel and Company an investment banking Philadelphia and formed the firm Drexel, Morgan and Company.

Morgan became closely allied with the powerful New York Central, which under Cornelius Vanderbilt became the largest company in the United States at that time.

Drexel, Morgan and Company dominated the country’s burgeoning railroad industry, and soon became the most influential and powerful bank to corporate interests in the country.

Upon his father’s death in 1890, Morgan inherited the London business and its global connections. And with Drexel’s death in 1893, Morgan became the patriarch of a vast financial empire.

J.P Morgan and Company helped organized the US Steel Corporation in 1901 an the International Harvest Corporation in 1902.

J.P Morgan and Company then save the New York Stock Exchange and New York City itself with an eleventh hour deal that put an end to the financial panic of 1907 by assembling a syndicate $30 million in bonds from the city.

In September 1935, J.P Morgan and Company was divided into two firms: commercial banking operations were house under Morgan, while a new company, Morgan Stanley, assumed control of investment banking operations.

J.P Morgan and Company finally went public in 1940 ending the bank’s history as a partnership.

By the 1980s, J.P Morgan had shifted its focus from commercial banking for the bluest of blue bloods into investment banking.
Early history of J.P Morgan and Company