Uniform Bank Performance Report - Anderson School of Management

1915: J.P. Morgan arranges the biggest foreign loan in history – a $500 million Anglo/French loan
1906: J.P. Morgan is central to the creation of U.S. Steel, GE & AT&T
1895: J. Pierpont Morgan, Sr. becomes senior partner. The NY firm is renamed J.P. Morgan & Co.
1893: J.P. Morgan is primary financier of U.S. railroads
1848: The Waterbury Bank opens, a predecessor of the Chase Manhattan Bank
1824: The Chemical Bank is established
1799: The Manhattan Company, the firm's earliest predecessor institution, is chartered
Early Origins
The JPMorgan Chase story begins in 1799, with the founding of The Manhattan Company. This company,
designed by a man named Aaron Burr, is truly JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s earliest predecessor. It was
ostensibly founded to provide clean water to the city of New York. However, the true motives behind
the creation of the company were to use its residual capital to gain entry into the banking industry. In
the same year (1799), this was accomplished, and The Bank of Manhattan was founded. Following these
events, the Bank of Manhattan led the industry for many years alongside its competitor, The
Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co., which would later become part of the JPMorgan Chase family.
Around the same time, many other businesses that would eventually become significant contributors to
today’s JPMorgan Chase & Co. were in their infancy. One of these was a company called The New York
Chemical Manufacturing Company, which produced medicines, paints, and dyes at a plant in Greenwich
Village.
In a situation similar to that of The Manhattan Company, The New York Chemical Company used its
excess capital to open a bank called Chemical Bank in 1824. Over the next one hundred seventy‐three
years, Chemical Bank would grow to become the fourth largest bank holding company in the United
States, and eventually merge with the JPMorgan Chase family in 1996 2 .
2 "The History of JPMorgan Chase and Co.; 200 Years in Leadership.", pg. 5