JP Morgan Chase Co. is the biggest bank in the United States by asset size, accounting for $3,773,884,000,000/-. The bank has operations across more than 60 countries and has over 240,000 employees. The bank offers various financial services ranging from Personal Banking, Investment Banking to Asset management services. As the largest of the big four banks, the firm is considered systematically important by the financial stability board. Enhanced regulatory oversight as well as maintenance of an internal fortress balance sheet and liquidity reserves were initiated due to its shear size.
The firm is headquartered on 383 Madison Avenue in Midtown Manhattan and is set to move into the under-construction JPMorgan Chase Building in 2025.
The History of this company is well known among the banking and financial circles.
In this article, I will be focusing on the ‘table turning’ events in the history of JP Morgan Chase which led to the company being one of the most ‘richest’ banks and financial firms in the world.
Following are the 5 events which strengthened the stance of JP Morgan Chase in the Banking World.
1) The Creation
The origins of the firm dates back to when Junius S Morgan joined George Peabody & Co, a London based banking business headed by George Peabody. Junius took control of the firm In 1864 upon the retirement of George Peabody and renamed the company to J.S Morgan & Co.
J Pierpont Morgan, son of Junius S Morgan, formed a company with his cousin. The company was called as J Pierpont Morgan and company. After the death of Junius, J P Morgan took his place at J.S. Morgan and Company. After Drexel's death, Drexel, Morgan reorganized in 1895 and became J.P. Morgan and Company. It financed the formation of the United States Steel Corporation, which took over the business of Andrew Carnegie and others and was the world's first billion-dollar corporation. In 1895, it supplied the United States government with $62 million in gold to float a bond issue and restore the treasury surplus of $100 million. In 1892, the company began to finance the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad and led it through a series of acquisitions, which made it the dominant railroad transporter in New England.
2) Becomes the Financier of War Bonds
In August 1914, Henry P Davidson, a partner of JP Morgan, made a deal with the Bank Of England to make JP Morgan & Co, the monopoly underwriter of war bonds for France and Britain. Bank of England then became a “fiscal Agent” of JP Morgan & Co. JP Morgan even invested in suppliers of war equipment to France and England.
The company profited from the financing and purchasing activities of the two European nations.
Since the U.S. federal government withdrew from world affairs under successive isolationist Republican administrations in the 1920s, J.P. Morgan & Co. continued playing a major role in global affairs since most European countries still owed war debts.
3) The Glass-Steagall Act
In the 1930s, JP Morgan and all other integrated banking businesses were required to separate their banking and investment activities into two different entities. This was the result of the Glass-Steagall Act, this led to the banning of the company from doing business in securities for a period of one year in the year 1935.
4) Morgan Stanley
Led by J.P. Morgan partners, Henry S. Morgan (son of Jack Morgan and grandson of J. Pierpont Morgan) and Harold Stanley, Morgan Stanley was founded on September 16, 1935, with $6.6 million of nonvoting preferred stock from J.P. Morgan partners. In order to bolster its position, in 1959, J.P. Morgan merged with the Guaranty Trust Company of New York to form the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company. The bank would continue to operate as Morgan Guaranty Trust until the 1980s, before migrating back to the use of the J.P. Morgan brand. In 1984, the group purchased the Purdue National Corporation of Lafayette, Indiana. In 1988, the company once again began operating exclusively as J.P. Morgan & Co.
5) Chase Manhattan Acquires J.P Morgan & Company
On September 14, 2000, Chase Manhattan Corporation, the third biggest banking company in the United States, has announced that it is going to acquire JP Morgan & Co, in an all stock deal worth $30.9 Billion.
Buying Morgan has catapulted Chase into the big leagues of investment banking, the business of raising money for large corporations and advising them on mergers and acquisitions. The deal was one among the consolidations of the nation's largest banks, leaving only a handful of huge institutions at the top of the industry.
Together, Chase and Morgan had more than $650 billion in assets, ranking second to Citigroup's $800 billion in the year 2000.
The deal has ended months of speculation about who might acquire the 150-year-old Morgan. Several firms, including Deutsche Bank of Germany, have considered buying Morgan as consolidation has picked up speed on Wall Street.
Chase, which was founded in 1799, has grown rapidly in recent years through mergers with some of New York's biggest banks, including Chemical Bank and Manufacturers Hanover.
Chase National Bank was formed in 1877 by John Thompson. It was named after former United States Treasury Secretary and Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, although Chase did not have a connection with the bank.
The Chase National Bank acquired several smaller banks in the 1920s through its Chase Securities Corporation. In 1926, for instance, it acquired Mechanics and Metals National Bank.
However, its most significant acquisition was that of the Equitable Trust Company of New York in 1930, the largest stockholder of which was John D. Rockefeller, Jr. This made Chase the largest bank in the US and the world.
It has been buying up smaller investment banking firms. To strengthen its position as an underwriter of technology companies, it acquired Hambrecht & Quist, a San Francisco-based firm, in 1999.
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