History of our Firm
The firm is built on the foundation of more than 1,200 predecessor institutions that have come together through the years to form today's company.
We trace our roots to 1799 in New York City, and our many well-known heritage firms include J.P. Morgan & Co., The Chase Manhattan Bank, Bank One, Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co., Chemical Bank, The First National Bank of Chicago, National Bank of Detroit, The Bear Stearns Companies Inc., Robert Fleming Holdings, Cazenove Group and the business acquired in the Washington Mutual transaction. Each of these firms, in its time, was closely tied to innovations in finance and the growth of the U.S. and global economies.
The Early Years of State Banking
The Manhattan Company is founded
The Manhattan Company, JPMorgan Chase's earliest predecessor institution, is chartered by the New York State legislature to supply "pure and wholesome" drinking water to the city's growing population. Among its founders are Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.
A provision in the charter allows The Manhattan Company to use its surplus capital for banking operations. Within five months, The Bank of The Manhattan Company opens for business, becoming the second commercial bank in New York City after Hamilton’s Bank of New York. With his banking monopoly broken, Hamilton severs his association with the water company.
The Hamilton – Burr duel
Manhattan Company founder Aaron Burr challenges his personal and political adversary, Alexander Hamilton, to a duel. The two men meet at dawn on July 11th in Weehawken, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from New York City. Hamilton is mortally wounded and dies the next morning.
The pistols selected by Hamilton for the duel were owned by his brother-in-law, John B. Church. In 1930 The Bank of The Manhattan Company purchases them from one of Church's descendants.
First philanthropic endeavor
The Manhattan Company grants New York City’s volunteer fire companies free access to its network of water pipes to fight fires, contributing to the community’s public safety.
The New York Manufacturing Company is incorporated
The New York Manufacturing Company, the earliest predecessor in Manufacturers Hanover’s family tree, is created to produce tools and parts for the textile industry. The company’s charter permits it to conduct a banking operation, similar to The Manhattan Company's example, and it establishes Phenix Bank in 1817.
The Bank of The Manhattan Company is a key lender for the construction of the Erie Canal, which opens in 1825 linking the Hudson River to the Great Lakes. Later in the century the bank provides funds to support interest payments on Erie Canal bonds and to enlarge and modernize the canal.
The New York Chemical Manufacturing Company opens
New York City merchants organize the New York Chemical Manufacturing Company to produce chemicals, medicines, paints and dyes. The company's charter prohibits banking activities but a year later the company secures an amendment enabling it to establish a banking subsidiary called The Chemical Bank
Bank of Commerce opens
The Bank of Commerce opens in New York City. This institution, which merges with the Guaranty Trust Company of New York in 1929, is the earliest predecessor on the J.P. Morgan family tree.
The New York Clearing House brings efficiency to banking
The New York Clearing House is organized, with several JPMC predecessors as charter members, to systematize the daily settling of checks drawn on other local banks. Previously, messengers went from bank to bank to trade checks for cash, a time-consuming and risky process. Centralized clearing greatly reduces the number of transactions and risk among member banks. More than $20 million is cleared on its first day of operation.
Abraham Lincoln becomes a customer
Springfield Marine and Fire Insurance Company opens in 1851 to insure shipping vessels and goods, but it also provides a variety of banking services. Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln opens a bank account there two years later with an initial deposit of $310. Lincoln keeps his account in Springfield through his presidential years until his assassination. The firm later evolves into Marine Corporation, a Bank One predecessor.
Junius Morgan begins business in London
Junius S. Morgan, patriarch of the Morgan banking family, moves to London and joins the private banking firm George Peabody & Co. It becomes the leading marketer of American securities in England and Europe, raising capital for the first transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858 among other important deals. The firm is restyled J. S. Morgan & Co. in 1864 and continues as a critical connection in the J.P. Morgan international banking network through the end of the century.
The Panic of 1857
A financial panic causes 18 New York City banks to close on a single day and ushers in a severe economic depression. Most banks suspend “specie payments” but Chemical Bank continues to redeem banknotes in gold coin, helping to stabilize the financial markets and earning it the nickname “Old Bullion.”
National Banks and the Age of Industry
The Legal Tender Act and National Banking Acts
New banking laws passed during the Civil War authorize the U.S. government to create a uniform national currency, ease borrowing to pay its war expenses, and set up a new system of nationally chartered banks.
The Legal Tender Act of 1862 provides for a standard national currency, nicknamed "greenbacks" for the elaborate design printed on the back of the notes. Because the notes are unsecured by gold deposits, the value of greenbacks fluctuates widely.
The National Bank Act of 1863 creates a new system of national banks operating under a uniform regulatory framework alongside the older state-chartered banks. The act empowers national banks to issue money in amounts secured by U.S. government bonds purchased and held in reserve by the banks. The 1863 law is strengthened by a second National Bank Act passed the following year.
First National Bank of Chicago, eighth in the nation
The First National Bank of Chicago opens for business, becoming the eighth nationally chartered bank under the new National Banking Act. JPMorgan Chase Bank continues to operate under this charter #8 to this day.
Guaranty Trust Company’s origins
The New York Guaranty and Indemnity Company is founded in New York. This institution, which evolves into Guaranty Trust Company of New York, later merges with J.P. Morgan & Co. in 1959.
Origins of Bank One
F.C. Sessions and Company is founded in Columbus, Ohio. This is Bank One's earliest predecessor in Columbus, its hometown base.
Drexel, Harjes & Co. opens in Paris
In 1868, Anthony Drexel establishes Drexel, Harjes & Co. in Paris, JPMorgan Chase’s earliest predecessor in France. Three years later, J. Pierpont Morgan partners with Drexel to open Drexel, Morgan & Co. in New York, later renamed J.P. Morgan & Co.
Drexel, Morgan & Co. is founded
J. Pierpont Morgan partners with Philadelphia banker Anthony Drexel to form Drexel, Morgan & Co., a private merchant banking house in New York City. Pierpont builds his reputation as a leader in railroad investments, the largest and most dynamic American industry in the years after the Civil War. The firm is rechristened J.P. Morgan & Co. in 1895 with Pierpont as the head of all four affiliated partnerships in New York, Philadelphia, London and Paris.
Fire devastates Chicago
When the Great Fire sweeps through Chicago in 1871, the First National Bank of Chicago's new "fireproof" building at the corner of State and Washington Streets is almost completely destroyed. The safes and vaults withstand the flames, however, leaving money, securities and valuable papers intact.
Chase Bank begins business
Chase National Bank is founded by John Thompson, a noted New York City banker and financial publisher. Thompson names the new bank in honor of his friend, Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury under Abraham Lincoln and architect of the National Banking System.
J.P. Morgan and railroad finance
Drexel, Morgan & Co. sells William H. Vanderbilt's shares of New York Central Railroad stock. At 250,000 shares it is, at the time, the largest block of stock ever publicly offered. The deal establishes J. Pierpont Morgan’s reputation as an expert railroad financier and mobilizer of capital. The next year, Morgan finances the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad underwriting the sale of $40 million in bonds, at the time "the largest transaction in railroad bonds ever made in the United States."
Through the end of the century, Morgan wields enormous power in the American railroad industry, reorganizing failing lines, orchestrating mergers, restructuring debt, eliminating competition and cutting costs to return the companies to profitability – a process dubbed “Morganization” by the press.
Investing in electricity
The Drexel, Morgan & Co. building at 23 Wall Street is the first office building in New York City to draw power from the Edison Electric Illuminating Company's newly built electric generating station. Thomas Edison personally turns on the building's lights.
First Chicago caters to women customers
First National Bank of Chicago establishes a women's banking department, one of the first in the United States to provide specifically designed accommodations for women customers. Over the next several decades, other banks provide distinct sections with separate entrances, writing desks and lounges to provide greater comfort to female clients.
The Brooklyn Bridge opens
The Brooklyn Trust Company, a Manufacturers Hanover predecessor, is responsible for most of the nearly $15 million needed to finance the bridge’s construction. It is the longest suspension bridge in the world at that time.
The Statue of Liberty is dedicated in New York Harbor
William L. Strong, founder of one of Chemical Bank's forerunners, is active in the fundraising campaign for the construction of the pedestal for the mammoth statue, a gift from France. Another Chemical Bank predecessor, Liberty National Bank (founded in 1891), later uses the statue as its logo.
The Great Seattle Fire and founding of Washington Mutual
Washington National Building Loan and Investment Association is founded after a fire destroys much of Seattle's core. The following year it makes the first monthly installment home loan on the Pacific Coast, lending $700 to a customer to build a house. The firm makes 2,000 similar loans, helping to rebuild 250 blocks of housing in the city.
General Electric Company is organized
Drexel, Morgan & Co. finances the consolidation of Thomas Edison’s electric companies with the Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric Company, one of the most important industrial combinations of the late 19th century.
A technological innovation
First National Bank of Chicago is the first Chicago bank to acquire the newly invented Burroughs Registering Accountant – an adding machine. Manufactured by the American Arithmometer Company, later renamed Burroughs Adding Machine Co., the crank-operated machines printed entries and totals on a paper tape.
Morgan shores up the U.S. Treasury gold reserves
In the years following the Panic of 1893, gold drains from the United States Treasury, causing a crisis in the nation’s currency, banking and international trade. J. Pierpont Morgan organizes a private sale of government bonds to European buyers to replenish the nation’s gold supply and restore public confidence, setting the stage for an economic recovery.
United States Steel is organized
J.P. Morgan & Co. organizes the buyout of industrialist Andrew Carnegie and combines some 15 companies to create United States Steel, the world's first billion-dollar corporation.
Morgan finances the Panama Canal
J. P. Morgan & Co. helps finance the Panama Canal, arranging for the transfer of $40 million for the U.S. government to buy land rights from the failed French endeavor that had begun construction of the canal in 1881. The purchase is the largest real estate transaction in history up to that time.
The Panic of 1907
J. Pierpont Morgan again takes charge during an economic crisis. As the stock market collapses, credit dries up, and banks and brokerages fail, Morgan marshals the major New York banks to supply liquidity to desperate markets, including purchasing $30 million of New York City bonds to avoid the city’s default. For two weeks, Morgan holds the group together until public confidence in the banks is restored. The crisis points to the need for a central bank and leads to the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913.
Financing the Houston Ship Channel
The 50-mile channel, linking land-locked Houston, Texas with Galveston Bay, is financed by bonds purchased by Texas Commerce predecessor, Union National Bank, and other local banks. Houston developer and banker Jesse H. Jones plays a significant role in marketing the bond issue. Completed in 1914, the channel is today one of the busiest waterways in the United States.
J. Pierpont Morgan dies
J. Pierpont Morgan dies while traveling in Rome on March 31, 1913. His son, J.P. (Jack) Morgan, Jr. becomes J.P. Morgan & Co.'s senior partner. The New York Stock Exchange closes until noon on the day of his funeral, an honor generally reserved for heads of state.
A new Morgan home rises on Wall Street
Construction begins in 1912 on a new J.P. Morgan & Co. headquarters at the firm’s historic site at 23 Wall Street. Completed the year after J. Pierpont Morgan’s death, the four-story neoclassical-style building embodies the firm’s characteristically discreet business style. The Morgan name is deliberately left off the building’s façade; the entrance doors bear only the street address “23.”
World Wars, Depression and International Expansion
Support for the Allies
During World War I, J.P. Morgan & Co. arranges the largest foreign loan in Wall Street history – a $500 million bond issue to support the English and French governments – and acts as purchasing agent for the Allies, facilitating the purchase of over $3 billion worth of war material and other goods needed by the Allies.
Other JPMC predecessor banks support the war effort by providing critical banking services in war-torn Europe. After America’s entry into the conflict, banks sell war bonds and many of their employees serve in the armed forces or volunteer with the Red Cross.
Post-war international expansion
After the war banks diversify and expand into new global markets. Chase National Bank and Guaranty Trust Company set up affiliates to do securities underwriting and open new branches in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Chase National merges with Equitable Trust Company in 1930, combining their extensive overseas branch networks and making Chase the world’s largest bank.
Washington Mutual School Savings Program
Washington Mutual Savings Bank launches the School Savings Program, one of the first to teach children the value of saving money. On the first School Bank Day nearly 17,000 schoolchildren make deposits. The program runs until the 1970s, introducing several hundred thousand children to banking.
Japan earthquake loan
Following the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake that devastated Tokyo and the city of Yokohama, J.P. Morgan & Co. leads a $150 million loan, part of an ambitious reconstruction plan. It is the first dollar loan to Japan and, at the time, the largest long term foreign loan ever placed in the American market. Three years later, Jack Morgan is decorated with a medal by the emperor of Japan for the firm’s financial help following the earthquake.
Pioneering women in banking
Chase National Bank hires Mary Vail Andress as an assistant cashier. She becomes the first female officer at a major New York City bank’s main office. Although women first entered the banking profession through clerical positions in the late nineteenth century, a number of pioneering women like Andress paved the way for others to achieve a range of positions within the financial sector.
Guaranty Trust Company invents the ADR
American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) represent shares of stock in a foreign company and trade on U.S. stock markets in dollars, simplifying investing in non-U.S. securities and opening access to American capital. In 1927 Guaranty Trust offers the first ADR for sale for U.K. retailer Selfridges Stores.
The 1929 stock market crash and its impact on banking
On October 29, 1929, after a decade of speculation and rising prices, the stock market collapses ushering in the Great Depression. The effect on the banking system is devastating as credit tightens and lenders call in margin loans that were used to speculate in the market. Depositors, worried that their bank might fail, rush to withdraw their savings. Over the next three years, such bank runs become more and more common. Unable to raise new funds from the Federal Reserve System, hundreds of banks fail throughout the nation.
Houston banks rescued
Jesse H. Jones, president of Houston’s National Bank of Commerce, organizes a group of top bankers and corporate leaders to bail out two failing Houston banks, Public National and Houston National, forestalling the collapse of the city's more stable banking institutions. Due to Jones’ leadership, no Houston banks fail during the Depression.
National Bank of Detroit opens
The National Bank of Detroit, forerunner of NBD Bancorp, opens in Detroit amidst a nationwide financial collapse. As depositors lose confidence in banks’ solvency, the federal government declares a bank holiday – closing all banks to give the financial system time to stabilize. After Detroit’s two major banks fail, Michigan is virtually without banking services for six weeks. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation and General Motors capitalize a new National Bank of Detroit, which opens 562 new accounts on its first day in business.
J.P. Morgan goes public
J.P. Morgan & Co., a private partnership since its inception, incorporates and sells shares to the public, becoming J.P. Morgan & Co. Incorporated. J.P. (Jack) Morgan, Jr., the firm's senior partner, becomes the new corporation's first chairman.
Our first drive-in
National Bank of Detroit is the first JPMC heritage bank to open a drive-in banking window. The idea was pioneered by a Vernon, California bank in 1937, but does not become a widespread service for retail consumers until the late 1940s.
Service during World War II
Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and America's entry in the war, our predecessor banks support the war effort abroad and at home. Thousands of bank employees serve overseas in the military, while at-home employees participate in blood drives and prepare packages of food, clothing and supplies for troops stationed abroad. Our predecessors play an important role in buying and promoting Treasury securities, sponsoring drives and selling war bonds at branches.
Chase National Bank establishes a branch in Japan and the first post-war U.S. bank branch in Germany.
A new wave of post-war expansion engulfs the global economy in the years following the end of World War II. By establishing new branches, representative offices and correspondent bank relationships abroad, our predecessors begin providing a wide range of international customer services, such as travelers’ checks. Corporate clients can now more easily obtain trade financing, bills of exchange and commercial letters of credit.
Bank Consolidation and Innovation
Bank consolidation in New York City
Post-war banking in America is marked by two trends: consolidation of banks through mergers and the growth of branch banking, reversing the pattern of small, single-office banking that had existed for more than a century. Branch banking had been viewed as monopolistic, but by the 1950s, the public wanted more convenient, local banking and a broader choice of services that could be provided by larger banks. All four of JPMorgan Chase’s New York City heritage firms – Chemical Bank, Chase Manhattan Bank, Morgan Guaranty Trust and Manufacturers Hanover Trust – are formed in this period of consolidation.
Read more: Major predecessors of JPMorgan Chase & Co. since 1799 >
Chase Manhattan Bank is created
Chase National Bank merges with The Bank of The Manhattan Company to form Chase Manhattan Bank. The new institution combines Chase National’s strength in international, corporate, and correspondent banking with The Bank of The Manhattan Company's network of branches and retail banking expertise.
Chase launches the first credit card in New York
Chase Manhattan introduces the Chase Manhattan Charge Plan, the first New York City bank to offer a retail credit account. The card is soon renamed Uni-Card and in 1972 joins the national BankAmericard System, the precursor to Visa.
Morgan Guaranty is organized
J.P. Morgan & Co. Incorporated merges with Guaranty Trust Company of New York forming Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York.
After rebuffing merger overtures from Guaranty Trust Company, then four times the size of Morgan with almost all of America's top 100 companies as clients, having watched its competitors grow rapidly through mergers, which diminished its own assets by comparison, Morgan agrees to merge but with the name Morgan Guaranty Trust Company. The combination creates one of the world’s largest trust operations.
Chase Manhattan introduces the Octagon logo
The design firm Chermayeff & Geismar is selected to design a new logo to reflect Chase Manhattan Bank’s increasing global presence. The new octagon symbol is intended to be a simple yet powerful form, embodying a feeling of motion centered around a square. The Octagon is one of the earliest abstract corporate logos and continues to be a significant element in the JPMorgan Chase brand architecture.
You Have a Friend at Chase
Around the same time it unveils its octagon logo, Chase also unveils a new advertising campaign. The “You Have a Friend at Chase” campaign runs from January 1960 through 1975 and becomes one of the first to feature the bank’s new logo. Coining one of Chase’s most memorable slogans, the advertisements reinforce the notion of friendly service no matter which Chase branch you visit, domestic or international.
Electronic data processing comes to banking
Chase Manhattan, First National Bank of Chicago and National Bank of Detroit each install computer equipment for the electronic processing of checks. Only two years after Chase Manhattan Bank installs one of the first computers in New York, an IBM 650 Data Processing System, the bank builds an automated check-processing center. Using new technology to read magnetic ink characters printed on checks, the system processes more than a million checks a day in its first year.
Manufacturers Hanover gets its start
Manufacturers Trust Company and The Hanover Bank merge, forming Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, then the third largest banking institution in New York City.
Credit cards go national
City National Bank & Trust Company in Columbus, Ohio, (Bank One’s main predecessor) establishes a national credit card program, becoming the first bank outside of California to introduce the BankAmericard, the precursor to Visa. In 1969, Manufacturers Hanover and Chemical Bank are among the founding issuers of the Master Charge Plan, today’s Master Card.
Euroclear is founded
Morgan Guaranty in Brussels launches Euroclear, a system that provides for the orderly settlement of transactions in Eurobonds, a new form of international security. Ownership is spun-off to its users in 1972 and in 2000 Euroclear Bank is launched to perform the operating and banking roles previously carried out by Morgan Guaranty.
The ATM era begins
Chemical Bank installs the nation’s first cash dispensing machine – the precursor to the ATM – in a Rockville Center branch on Long Island, inaugurating 24-hour banking in the New York metropolitan area. In 1970 Bank One forerunner City National Bank installs ATMs in its branches, making Columbus, Ohio, a major test market for the machines. Technological improvements to the ATM and added functionality, such as making deposits and transfers, are rolled out beginning in 1971.
Bank holding companies set the stage for growth
Morgan Guaranty, Chase Manhattan, Manufacturers Hanover, Chemical, and First National Bank of Chicago all reorganize to form holding companies, corporate entities that own the capital stock of their lead banks. Holding companies permit greater flexibility to raise capital and expand geographically and functionally. The Marine Corporation in Wisconsin, a Bank One predecessor, is the first bank holding company in the U.S., founded in 1958.
Opening doors to Russia and China
Chase Manhattan establishes a representative office in Moscow, the first U.S. bank to have a business presence there since the 1920s. Connections with mainland China are reinvigorated the same year when Chase Manhattan becomes the first American correspondent of the Bank of China since the 1949 revolution.
Rockefeller establishes the Chase Manhattan Bank Archives
In 1974, David Rockefeller, chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, establishes the Chase Manhattan Bank Archives in an effort to preserve the legacy of his firm. With each successive merger, the archive continues to grow, adding to its collection the documents and artifacts of the newly-merged banks. Today, the JPMorgan Chase Historical Collection is one of the largest private business collections in the country and documents the heritage of the firm’s over 1,200 predecessor institutions.
A gift to the Smithsonian
Chase Manhattan Bank donates the Money Museum, the bank's famed collection of money from around the world, to the Smithsonian Institution. The collection contains 75,000 specimens of coins, paper currency and transactional objects from all time periods since the introduction of monetary systems. The gift to the Smithsonian’s national numismatic collection is intended to make these objects more accessible to the public.
Interstate Banking Meets the Computer Age
At home banking develops
Bank One tests an early version of home banking called Channel 2000. Bank customers can view their bank balances on a television screen, pay bills and shift money between accounts. The service works over regular telephone lines. In 1983 Chemical Bank introduces Pronto, the first full-fledged online banking service, and in 1985 Chase Manhattan Bank introduces Spectrum, a home banking service offering three tiers of service: core banking, financial planning, and investing.
Expanding beyond markets: the age of interstate banking
The Supreme Court rules that regional interstate banking zones are constitutional, marking an important step toward the development of full interstate banking today. Up to this time, bank holding companies were prohibited from acquiring banks across state lines. As a result, our New York heritage firms begin expanding beyond the New York City market, while all three Midwest heritage firms – Banc One in Ohio, First Chicago in Illinois, and NBD in Michigan – merge with large bank holding companies in other states before merging with one another in the 1990s.
Networked ATMs is NYCE
The New York Cash Exchange (NYCE), the first automatic teller network in the New York metropolitan area, gives customers access to more than 800 ATMs in 650 locations in the tri-state area. Chemical and Manufacturers Hanover are among the original founders. Within a year, affiliation with other ATM networks increases NYCE user access to more than 18,000 ATMs across the U.S.
In a relaxation of the Glass-Steagall banking laws separating commercial and investment bank activities, the U.S. Federal Reserve grants J.P. Morgan & Co. the right to underwrite and deal in corporate debt securities. One year later Morgan is granted equity underwriting powers, becoming the first U.S. bank holding company to provide clients with a full range of securities services since the 1930s.
Chemical and Manufacturers Hanover merge
Chemical Banking Corporation merges with Manufacturers Hanover Corporation, reported in the press as a "merger of equals." The new firm is named Chemical Banking Corporation and is the second-largest banking institution in the U.S. behind Citicorp.
First Chicago merges with NBD
First Chicago Corporation merges with NBD Bancorp. The new firm, First Chicago NBD, is the largest banking company in the Midwest and the seventh largest bank holding company in the U.S.
Online Banking and the Internet
Chemical launches Online Banking which allows customers to consolidate all of their accounts and access them from their home computers. Two years later, NBD Bank, Bank One and Chase each introduce online banking services. First Chicago NBD introduces a free Internet bank in 1998.
Chase Manhattan merges with Chemical
Chase Manhattan Corporation merges into Chemical Banking Corporation in one of the largest consolidations in U.S. banking history. At the time it is the largest bank holding company in the United States.
Banc One merges with First Chicago NBD
Banc One Corporation merges with First Chicago NBD. The new firm, retaining the name Bank One Corporation, chooses Chicago as its headquarters and becomes the fourth largest bank in the U.S. and the world's largest Visa credit card issuer.
J.P. Morgan serves as advisor in Exxon-Mobil merger
As exclusive advisor to Exxon in its merger with Mobil, J.P. Morgan helps create the world’s third largest quoted company and its largest energy company.
The Rise of JPMorgan Chase & Co.
J.P. Morgan merges with Chase Manhattan
J.P. Morgan & Co. Incorporated merges with The Chase Manhattan Corporation. The new firm is named J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
J.P. Morgan Chase merges with Bank One
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. merges with Bank One Corporation. The new firm, with its corporate headquarters based in New York and its retail division based in Chicago, retains the name JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Chase opens its first environmentally friendly branch in Denver.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. acquires Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual
Collapse of the housing and mortgage markets leads to a severe worldwide financial crisis, the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s. JPMorgan Chase helps stabilize the markets by acquiring the failing investment firm Bear Stearns Companies Inc. and Seattle-based savings and loan company, Washington Mutual.
J.P. Morgan Cazenove
J.P. Morgan acquires full ownership of the firm's U.K. joint venture, J.P. Morgan Cazenove, with origins dating to 1823.
Chase rolls out innovative mobile banking features to help customers manage their accounts, pay bills and transfer money on mobile phones and tablets.
Financing a new GM
J.P. Morgan leads General Motors in its historic initial public offering (IPO), serving as joint bookrunner and co-representative of the underwriters in the $23.1 billion sale, the world’s largest IPO at the time.
Support for Veterans
JPMorgan Chase & Co. joins the 100,000 Jobs Mission, which brings together companies committed to hiring U.S. military veterans and military spouses.
Women on the Move
The firm launches its Women on the Move initiative designed to help women at all levels in the company overcome challenges they face in the workplace and grow their careers.
New Skills at Work
JPMorgan Chase launches a five-year, $250-million initiative to help people build in-demand work skills, adapt and succeed in an ever changing world of work. Building on its original investment, the firm expands the program in 2018 with a new five-year $350-million commitment.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. pledges $100 million over five years to support, accelerate and scale some of the most innovative efforts underway to transform Detroit’s economy.
Chase Pay, express checkout
Chase announces Chase Pay, a better payment experience for in-store, in-app and online purchases.
New Skills for Youth
JPMorgan Chase announces a $75 million global initiative to address the economic opportunity crisis facing young people. The initiative, called New Skills for Youth, aims to provide young adults with skills to help them in their job searches.
A new HQ
JPMorgan Chase announces plans to replace its headquarters building at 270 Park Avenue with a new resource efficient skyscraper. The new world-class office tower, will house all NYC midtown employees.
AdvancingCities is a $500 million, five-year initiative to invest in solutions that bolster the long-term viability of the world's cities and communities that have not benefited from economic growth.
Advancing Black Pathways
Advancing Black Pathways combines JPMorgan Chase's business and philanthropic resources to focus on wealth, education, and careers to accelerate economic opportunities for black people.