Evolution of Excellence

JPMorgan Chase is built on the foundation of nearly 1,000 predecessor institutions brought together over the years to form today’s company.   It traces its beginnings to the Bank of Manhattan Company, founded by Aaron Burr in 1799. As America expanded and diversified in the 1800s, new banks were formed across the nation. JPMorgan Chase has historical links to many of these early institutions.

The New York Manufacturing Company began in 1812 as a manufacturer of cotton-processing equipment and switched to banking five years later. It was a forerunner of Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. on the JPMorgan Chase family tree. By 1823, the New York Chemical Manufacturing Company began producing medicines, paints and dyes at a plant in Greenwich Village. It used its excess capital in 1824 to open a bank called   Chemical Bank, which joined the JPMorgan Chase family in 1996.

By 1853 a group of 52 banks – more than one-quarter of which are heritage institutions of JPMorgan Chase – established the New York Clearing House, the nation’s first such organization. This allowed the banks to settle their accounts at one central location and helped make check-clearing more efficient and less prone to theft and error.

Origins and influence of J.P. Morgan & Co. JPMorgan Chase’s other namesake predecessor, J.P. Morgan & Co., was founded in New York in 1871 as Drexel, Morgan & Co. by J. Pierpont Morgan and Philadelphia banker Anthony Drexel. The new merchant banking partnership served initially as an agent for Europeans investing in the United States.

The Morgan firm spearheaded some of the most important transactions of the time and formed many of the large business trusts that dominated key American industries at the beginning of the 20th century. It played a major role in financing the Allied victory during World War I, and with the onset of war in Europe in 1939, J.P. Morgan & Co. was chosen by the British and French governments to sell $1.5 billion of publicly traded securities in the New York market.

Global Banking

During the Roaring Twenties, Chase National Bank, after acquiring five banks, merged with The Equitable Trust Company of New York in 1930. The Chase-Equitable merger not only created the world’s largest bank in terms of assets and deposits, but also gave the Rockefeller family, which controlled Equitable, an ownership stake in Chase. The Rockefellers have been associated with Chase ever since.

Globalization in the banking industry evolved slowly. In 1947, at the invitation of the U.S. military, Chase National Bank established the first U.S. postwar bank branches in Germany and Japan. These branches joined existing Chase branches in London and Paris and were followed by the opening of others around the world.

In the 1970s Chase added nearly 40 new branches, representative offices, affiliates, subsidiaries and joint ventures outside the United States. Among Midwestern banks, First National Bank of Chicago was perhaps the most active internationally, establishing offices in 25 countries by 1973.

Banking Industry Consolidation

In addition to globalization, a second major postwar trend was industry consolidation through mergers, acquisitions and the formation of multi-bank holding companies.

• In 1991, Chemical Banking Corp. combined with Manufacturers Hanover Corp. keeping the name Chemical Banking Corp., then the second-largest banking institution in the United States.

• Four years later, First Chicago Corp. merged with NBD Bancorp., forming First Chicago NBD, the largest banking company based in the Midwest.

• In 1996, Chase Manhattan Corp. merged into Chemical Banking Corp., creating what was then the largest bank holding company in the United States.

• In 1998, Banc One Corp. merged with First Chicago NBD, taking the name Bank One Corp. Merging subsequently with Louisiana’s First Commerce Corp., Bank One became the largest financial services firm in the Midwest, the fourth-largest bank in the U.S. and the world’s largest Visa credit card issuer.

• In 2000, J.P. Morgan & Co. merged with Chase Manhattan Corp., in effect combining four of the largest and oldest money center banking institutions in New York City (Morgan, Chase, Chemical and Manufacturers Hanover) into one firm called J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. All of this activity culminated in July 2004 with the joining of JPMorgan Chase and Bank One Corp. to form today’s JPMorgan Chase.

Business and Products

• 1958. Chase introduced the Chase Manhattan Charge Plan, becoming the first New York City bank and one of the first in the nation to offer customers a single retail charge account that provided credit at a citywide network of stores.

• 1966. City National Bank & Trust Company of Columbus, Ohio, became one of the first banks outside California to introduce BankAmericard, the precursor of Visa. Five years later, City National was involved with the first major national test of point-of-sale terminals for processing credit card transactions.

• 1969. Chemical Bank installed the first prototype cash-dispensing machine in America, a precursor of the ATM, becoming the first bank in the country to allow customers to withdraw cash 24 hours a day

• 1975. Manufacturers Hanover, Chemical and Chase began testing point-of-sale credit card terminals using common switching facilities.

• 1981. Banc One received national attention for linking its Visa card issuance and data processing technology to several major brokerage firms’ money market funds, giving customers access to their money market accounts through their Visa cards.

• 1983. Chemical Bank introduced Pronto, the first major full-fledged online banking service. Using a home computer, modem and software, customers could pay bills, transfer funds, review account balances, track budgets and balance their checkbooks.

Today, JPMorgan Chase is a premier global investment and commercial bank with assets of $1.2 trillion and operations in more than 50 countries. A component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the firm has its corporate headquarters in New York and its U.S. retail financial services and commercial banking headquarters in Chicago. Under the JPMorgan and Chase brands, it serves millions of consumers in the United States and many of the worlds most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients.