 The current logo, in use since 2005 | |
| Chase Bank | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Banking |
| Predecessor | The Manhattan Company |
| Founded | September 1, 1799; 226 years ago (September 1, 1799) |
| Founder | John Thompson |
| Headquarters | , U.S. |
Number of locations | 5,000 branches 15,000ATMs nationwide 100 countries[1] |
Area served | United States |
Key people | Jamie Dimon (chairman andCEO) |
| Products | Financial services |
| Services | Retail Financial Services Card Services Commercial Banking |
| Revenue | US$124.54 billion (2022) |
| US$42.12 billion (2022) | |
| Total assets | US$4 trillion (2022) |
Number of employees | 250,355 (2022) |
| Parent | JPMorgan Chase |
| Website | chase.com |
| Footnotes / references [2] | |
JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.,doing business asChase, is an Americannational bank headquartered inNew York City that constitutes theconsumer andcommercial banking subsidiary of the Americanmultinational banking and financial servicesholding company,JPMorgan Chase. The bank was known asChase Manhattan Bank until it merged withJ.P. Morgan & Co. in 2000.[3] Chase Manhattan Bank was formed by the merger of the Chase National Bank and theManhattan Company in 1955.[4] The bank merged withChemical Bank New York in 1996 and later merged withBank One Corporation in 2004[5] and in 2008 acquired the deposits and most assets ofWashington Mutual. In May 2023, it acquired the assets ofFirst Republic Bank.
Chase offers more than 5,000 branches and 15,000ATMs nationwide and has 18.5 million checking accounts and 25 million debit card users as of 2023.[1] JPMorgan Chase & Co. has 250,355 employees (as of 2016) and operates in more than 100 countries. JPMorgan Chase & Co. had assets of $3.31 trillion in 2022 which makes it thelargest bank in the United States[6] as well as the bank with the most branches in the United States[7] and the only bank with a presence in all of thecontiguous United States.[8] JPMorgan Chase, through its Chase subsidiary, is one of theBig Four banks of the United States.[9][10]
The Bank of The Manhattan Company (New York) was founded on September 1, 1799, and continued under that name until 1955, when it merged with theChase National Bank, which was founded in 1877; the merged bank was called The Chase Manhattan Bank.[11][12]
Chase traces its history back to the founding of The Manhattan Company byAaron Burr on September 1, 1799, in a house at 40 Wall Street:[3]
After an epidemic of yellow fever in 1798, during which coffins had been sold by itinerant vendors on street corners,Aaron Burr established the Manhattan Company, with the ostensible aim of bringing clean water to the city from theBronx River but in fact, designed as a front for the creation of New York's second bank, rivalingAlexander Hamilton'sBank of New York.
In 2006, the modern-day Chase bought theretail banking division of the Bank of New York, which then only months later merged withPittsburgh-basedMellon Financial to form the present-dayBNY Mellon.[14][15]: 23–26
Chase National Bank was formed in 1877 byJohn Thompson.[3] It was named after formerUnited States Treasury Secretary and Chief JusticeSalmon P. Chase,[4] although Chase (having died four years earlier) did not have a connection with the bank.[3]
The Chase National Bank acquired a number of smaller banks in the 1920s through its Chase Securities Corporation. In 1926, for instance, it acquiredMechanics 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 wasJohn D. Rockefeller Jr.[16] This made Chase the largest bank in the US and the world.
Chase was primarily awholesale bank dealing with other prominent financial institutions and major corporate clients such asGeneral Electric,[17]: 450 which had, through itsRCA subsidiary, leased prominent space and become a crucial first tenant ofRockefeller Center. They rescued that major project in 1930. The bank is also closely associated with and has financed theoil industry, having longstanding connections with its board of directors to the successor companies ofStandard Oil, especiallyExxonMobil, which are also part of Rockefeller holdings.[citation needed]
In 1955, Chase National Bank and The Manhattan Company merged to create the Chase Manhattan Bank.[3] As Chase was a much larger bank, it was first intended that Chase acquire the "Bank of Manhattan", as it was nicknamed, but it transpired that Burr's original charter for the Manhattan Company had not only included the clause allowing it to start a bank with surplus funds, but another requiring unanimous consent of shareholders for the bank to be taken over. The deal was therefore structured as an acquisition by the Bank of the Manhattan Company of Chase National, withJohn J. McCloy becoming chairman of the merged entity. This avoided the need for unanimous consent by shareholders.
For Chase Manhattan Bank's new logo,Chermayeff & Geismar designed a stylized octagon in 1961, which remains part of the bank's logo today.[18] It has been reported that the Chase logo was a stylized representation of the primitive water pipes laid by the Manhattan Company,[19] but this story was refuted in 2007 by Ivan Chermayeff himself. According to Chermayeff, the Chase logo was merely intended to be distinctive and geometric, and was not intended at all to resemble a cross-section of a wooden water pipe.[20] According to Chase, the sides of the octagon represent forward motion, while the blank space in the middle suggests progress originates from the center; and is a single unit made up of separate parts, like the bank.[21] The bank included an asset management business called the Chase Investors Management Corporation. Under McCloy's successor, George Champion, the bank relinquished its antiquated 1799 state charter for a modern one. In 1969, under the leadership ofDavid Rockefeller, the bank reorganized as abank holding company, theChase Manhattan Corporation.[4]
The mergers and acquisitions during this period allowed Chase Manhattan to expand its influence over many non-financial corporations. A 1979 study titled "The Significance of Bank Control over Large Corporations"[22] found that: "The Rockefeller-controlled Chase Manhattan Bank tops the list, controlling 16 companies." In 1985, Chase Manhattan expanded intoArizona by acquiring Continental Bank.[23] In 1991, Chase Manhattan expanded intoConnecticut by acquiring two insolvent banks.[24]
In August 1995,Chemical Bank of New York and Chase Manhattan Bank announced plans to merge.[25] The merger was completed in August 1996.[26] Chemical's previous acquisitions includedManufacturers Hanover Corporation, in 1991, andTexas Commerce Bank, in 1987. Although Chemical was the nominal survivor, the merged company retained the Chase name since not only was it better known (particularly outside the United States), but also the original charter of Chase required that the name be retained in any future business ventures. Hence, even today, it is known as JPMorgan Chase.
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In December 2000, the combined Chase Manhattan completed the acquisition ofJ.P. Morgan & Co. in one of the largest banking mergers to date. The combined company was renamedJPMorgan Chase. In 2004, the bank acquiredBank One, making Chase the largest credit card issuer in the United States. JPMorgan Chase addedBear Stearns andWashington Mutual to its acquisitions in 2008 and 2009 respectively. After closing nearly 400 overlapping branches of the combined company, less than 10% of its total, Chase will have approximately 5,410 branches in 23 states as of the closing date of the acquisition.[27][28] According to data fromSNL Financial (data as of June 30, 2008), this places Chase third behindWells Fargo andBank of America in terms of total U.S. retail bank branches.
In October 2010, Chase was named in two lawsuits alleging manipulation of the silver market.[29] The suits allege that by managing giant positions in silver futures and options, the banks influenced the prices of silver on the Comex Exchange since early 2008.
The following is an illustration of the company's major mergers and acquisitions and historical predecessors to 1995 (this is not a comprehensive list):
| Chase Manhattan Bank (merged 1995) |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In 2004, JPMorgan Chase merged withChicago-basedBank One Corp., bringing on board its current chairman andCEOJamie Dimon as president andCOO and designating him as CEOWilliam B. Harrison Jr.'s successor. Dimon's pay was pegged at 90% of Harrison's. Dimon quickly made his influence felt by embarking on a cost-cutting strategy and replaced former JPMorgan Chase executives in key positions with Bank One executives—many of whom were with Dimon atCitigroup. Dimon became CEO in January 2006 and chairman in December 2006 after Harrison's resignation.[30]
Bank One Corporation was formed upon the 1998 merger between Banc One ofColumbus, Ohio andFirst Chicago NBD. These two large banking companies were themselves created through the merger of many banks. JPMorgan Chase completed the acquisition ofBank One in Q3 2004. The merger between Bank One and JPMorgan Chase meant that corporate headquarters were now in New York City while the retail bank operations of Chase were consolidated in Chicago.[31][32]
The following is an illustration of Bank One's major mergers and acquisitions and historical predecessors (this is not a comprehensive list):
| Bank One (merged 1998) |
| |||||||||||||||||||||
On September 25, 2008, JPMorgan Chase bought most banking operations of Washington Mutual from thereceivership of theFederal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).[33]: 115 That night, theOffice of Thrift Supervision, in what was by far the largest bank failure in American history, seized Washington Mutual Bank and placed it into receivership. The FDIC sold the bank's assets, secured debt obligations and deposits to JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA for $1.888 billion, which re-opened the bank the following day. As a result of the takeover, Washington Mutual shareholders lost all theirequity.[34] Through the acquisition, JPMorgan became owner of the former accounts ofProvidian Financial, a credit card issuerWaMu acquired in 2005. The company completed the rebranding of Washington Mutual branches to Chase in late 2009.
In the first quarter of 2006, Chase purchasedCollegiate Funding Services, a portfolio company of private equity firmLightyear Capital, for $663 million. CFS was used as the foundation for the Chase Student Loans, previously known as Chase Education Finance.[35] In April of that same year, Chase acquired theBank of New York Co.'s retail and small business banking network. This gave Chase access to 338 additional branches and 700,000 new customers in New York,New Jersey, Connecticut, andIndiana.[36]
In 2019, Chase began opening retail branches inPittsburgh and other areas withinWestern Pennsylvania; this coincided withBank of America starting a similar expansion within the area the previous year.[37] Even though Chase entered the market organically as opposed to a merger & acquisition, they still had to receive approval from theOffice of the Comptroller of the Currency to open branches due to Chase's size as a whole.[38] Before Chase and Bank of America expanded its retail presence into the market, Pittsburgh had been one of the largest U.S. cities without a retail presence from any of the"Big Four", with locally basedPNC Financial Services (no. 6 nationally) having a commanding market share in the area. Chase had previously considered buyingNational City branches from PNC that were required for divestiture following that bank'sacquisition of National City in 2009, but were instead sold toFirst Niagara Bank (since absorbed intoKeyBank); it had been speculated that PNC intentionally sold the branches to a much smaller competitor due to not wanting to compete with a "Big Four" bank in its home market.[39]
In August 2021, Chase announced that it was the first bank to have a retail presence in all 48 of thecontiguous United States. The last state in the US to have a Chase branch wasMontana, with the branch inBillings the first branch in the state.[40][41]
In September 2021, JPMorgan Chase entered theUnited Kingdom retail banking market by launching an app-basedcurrent account andDeposit account under theChase brand. This is the company's first retail banking operation outside of the United States.[42][43][44]
A press release from theNational Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in 2004 announced that many of the newFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files had become declassified. This declassification enabled the discovery that before and during the early years ofWorld War II, theGerman government sold a special kind ofReichsmark, known as Rückwanderer [returnee] Marks, to American citizens of German descent. Chase National Bank, along with other businesses, were involved in these transactions. Through Chase, this allowed Nazi sympathizers to purchase Marks withdollars at a discounted rate. Specifically, "The financial houses understood that the German government paid the commissions (to its agents, including Chase) through the sale of discounted, blocked Marks that came mainly fromJews who had fledGermany." In other words, Nazi Germany was able to offer these Marks below face-value because they had been stolen fromémigrés fleeing the Nazi regime. Between 1936 and 1941, theNazis amassed over $20 million, and the businesses enabling these transactions earned $1.2 million in commissions. Of these commissions, over $500,000 went to Chase National Bank and its subagents.
These facts were discovered when the FBI began its investigation in October 1940. The purpose of the investigation was to follow German-Americans who had bought the Marks. However, Chase National Bank's executives were never federally prosecuted because Chase's lead attorney threatened to revealFBI,Army, andNavy "sources and methods" in court.[citation needed] Publicly naming the sources and methods could have posed security risks and threatened futureintelligence gathering. To avoid such revelations, the executives' violations of theJohnson Act, theEspionage Act, and theForeign Agents Registration Act were never prosecuted.[45][46][47]
During the occupation of France by the Nazis, there was a controversial scheme known as the Rückwanderer Mark Scheme. In addition to this, NARA records revealed another controversy involving the release of funds to Nazi Germany. From the late 1930s until June 14, 1941, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) issued an Executive Order freezing German assets, Chase National Bank worked with the Nazi government. The order, which blocked access to French accounts in the U.S. by anyone, especially the Nazis, was issued by Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau Jr., with the approval of FDR. Despite this order, Chase unblocked the accounts within hours and the funds were transferred through South America to Nazi Germany.
U.S. Treasury officials wanted an investigation of French subsidiaries of American banks, including: Chase Bank,J.P. Morgan & Co,National City Corporation,Guaranty Bank,Bankers Trust, andAmerican Express. Of these banks, only Chase and Morgan remained open in France during theNazi occupation. The Chase branch chief in Paris, France, Carlos Niedermann, told his supervisor in New York that there had been an "expansion of deposits". Also, Niedermann was, "very vigorous in enforcing restrictions against Jewish property, even going so far as to refuse to release funds belonging to Jews in anticipation that a decree withretroactive provisions prohibiting such release might be published in the near future by the occupying Nazi authorities"[citation needed] .
In 1998, Chase general counsel William McDavid said that Chase did not have control over Niedermann. Whether that claim was true or not, Chase Manhattan Bank acknowledged seizing about 100 accounts during theVichy regime. Kenneth McCallion, a partner in the New York firm Goodkind Labaton Rudoff & Sucharow,[48] led a lawsuit againstBarclays Bank for the illegal seizure of assets duringWorld War Two and has since turned his attention toward Chase. TheWorld Jewish Congress (WJC), entered into discussions with Chase and a spokesperson for the WJC said, "Nobody at Chase today is guilty. They were not involved in whatever happened, but they do accept that they have an institutional responsibility." A Chase spokesman said, "This is a moral issue that we take very seriously." Chase general counsel McDavid added, "that Chase intends to compensate Jewish account holders whose assets were illegally plundered". In 1999, the French government formed a commission to report findings toPrime MinisterLionel Jospin.Claire Andrieu, [fr] a commission member and history professor at theSorbonne, said that under the Vichy regime, French banks received visits from Nazi officials but U.S. banks did not. At that time, they did not have to report Jewish accounts, but they did just as the French banks did. She goes on to say that an Americanambassador protected the U.S. subsidiaries.[49][50][51]
In May 1999, Chase Manhattan reached a settlement with 20 plaintiffs who filed an asset reparations lawsuit, such as theClaims Conference, a Jewish restitution organization, and the WJC.[52] The settlement subjected Chase to an independent probe of its conduct of activity which occurred from the company's offices inParis andChâteauneuf-sur-Cher, in southern France, during the World War II-era.[52] The settlement also made possible the company having to eventually a pay modest but symbolically important, payouts to former Chase customers after the probe was completed.[52] It was determined that Chase only owned a sum that was well under $1 million in asset reparations by this point in time.[52] The settlement made Chase Manhattan the first bank to reach a settlement overHolocaust-related claims.[52]
In February 2000, more than fifty years after information regarding the ties between Chase and Nazi Germany was revealed during Congressional hearings, Chase Manhattan publicly acknowledged the deal its predecessor Chase National Bank made with Nazi Germany which helped the German government exchange marks and which also likely originated from theforced sale of assets by Jewish refugees.[53]
JPMorgan Chase has paid $16 billion in fines, settlements, and other litigation expenses from 2011 to 2013. Of the $16 billion JPMorgan Chase has paid, about $8.5 billion were for fines and settlements resulting from illegal actions taken by bank executives, according to Richard Eskow at the Campaign for America's Future, who cited a new report from Joshua Rosner of Graham Fisher & Co.
The $16 billion total does not include a recent settlement that calls for JPMorgan Chase to pay $100 million to waive $417 million in claims it had made against clients of the firmMF Global.
TheU.S. Treasury'sOffice of Foreign Assets Control found that JPMorgan had illegally aided dictatorships inCuba,Sudan,Liberia andIran, including transferring 32,000 ounces ofgold bullion (valued at approximately $20,560,000) to the benefit of a bank in Iran. JPMorgan did not voluntarily self-disclose the Iranian matter toOFAC.[54]
Among its other transgressions, JPMorgan has been found to have:[55][56][57][58][59][60]
During 2013 and 2014, Chase and other banks received media attention for the practice of cancelling the personal and business accounts of hundreds of legalsex workers, citing in some instances the "morality clause" of their account agreement.[61] Later it was discovered that this practice included mortgage accounts and business loans.[62] Chase canceled the mortgage refinancing process for one individual, which the bank had initiated, whose production company madesoft core films like those broadcast onCinemax.[63] This resulted in a lawsuit[64] which cited evasive dealings and misleading statements by several Chase executives including Securities Vice President Adam Gelcich, Legal Fair Lending Department Vice President Deb Vincent, and an unnamed executive director and assistant general counsel.[65]
In addition to closing accounts for sex workers, the bank has also been using its "morality clause" to disassociate from other types of businesses.[66] Some of these other businesses includemedical marijuana dispensaries and any that are "gun related".[66] Another was a woman-owned condom manufacturing company calledLovability Condoms. Company founder Tiffany Gaines was rejected byChase Paymentech services "as processing sales for adult-oriented products is a prohibited vertical" and was told that it was a "reputational risk" to process payment for condoms.[66] Gaines then started a petition to ask Chase to review and change its policy of classifying condoms as an "adult oriented product". The bank later reversed its decision and invited Gaines to submit an application citing that was already doing business with a "wide variety of merchants, including grocers and drug stores, that sell similar products".[67]
In 2019, the bank faced growing criticism for its alleged practice of arbitrarily targeting the personal accounts of outspoken online personalities such asMartina Markota andProud Boys chairmanEnrique Tarrio. Although the specific motives behind the closures were not officially disclosed the assumption among many on the right was that they were political in nature.[68]
Financial documents[69] fromEnergy Transfer Partners, the pipeline builder for theDakota Access Pipeline, lists a number of large banking institutions that have provided credit for the project, including JP Morgan Chase. Because of these financial ties, Chase and other banks were a target[70] of theDakota Access Pipeline protests during 2016 and 2017.
JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay $5 million to compensate their male employees who did not receive the same paidparental leave as women from 2011 to 2017.[71] In December 2017, the bank "clarified its policy to ensure equal access to men and women looking to be their new child's main caregiver".[72] According to the involved attorneys, this is the biggest recorded settlement in a U.S. parental leave discrimination case. JPMorgan agreed to train and monitor to ensure equal parental leave benefits and stated that "its policy was always intended to be gender-neutral".[73]
Chase has faced criticism and protests over its high rate of investment in variousfossil fuel industries such as coal, oil, and gas.[74] A study released in October 2019 indicated that Chase invests more ($75 billion) in fossil fuels than any other bank.[75]
An analysis of home purchases in Chicago from 2012 to 2018 byCity Bureau andWBEZ Chicago showed that JP Morgan Chase, "loaned 41 times more in Chicago's white neighborhoods than it did in the city's black neighborhoods".[76] The report prompted protests at Chicago Chase branches in June 2020.[77] At a reopening of a remodeled Chase branch in Chicago'sSouth Shore, Dimon said via video, "we have targets now to do $600 million (over the next five years) in new mortgages for Blacks and new homeowners in Chicago neighborhoods".[78]
The U.S. government sued JP Morgan Chase Bank in 2022, alleging that JP Morgan "facilitated, sustained, and concealed the human trafficking network operated byJeffrey Epstein."[79]
In 2024, a glitch occurred in Chase's ATMs which allowed users to withdraw money using fraudulent checks.[80] This type of bank fraud is commonly known ascheck kiting.
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