JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The company traces its founding to the Manhattan Company, New York City’s first water company, in 1799. After a yellow fever outbreak peaked in 1798, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr led the creation of this private company to supply clean water to Lower Manhattan; Burr added a clause to the charter allowing the directors to start a bank with capital not needed by the water business. Within six months of obtaining the charter, the directors voted to open a bank, and the Bank of the Manhattan Company was born; its charter later became a template for other banks in New York.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

Guided by Junius Morgan, a merchant banker in London, his son J. Pierpont Morgan entered banking and in 1871 joined Philadelphia banker Anthony Drexel to establish a merchant bank in New York, initially acting as the American agent of Junius’s European firm. Later renamed J.P. Morgan and Company, it became the preeminent private bank in the United States, financing and organizing the railroad, steel and utility companies that made the country a modern industrial power.⁠[1][1][1]

The United States then had no central bank. In October 1907 the semi-retired Pierpont Morgan gathered New York’s leading bankers at his library and for two weeks led efforts to raise capital for the failing markets, contributing large sums of his own money and acting as the country’s de facto central bank; he had also rescued the US Treasury during the Panic of 1893. Congress subsequently passed a currency act in 1908, and in 1913 the United States established the Federal Reserve.⁠[1][1][1][1][1][1]

During World War I, J.P. Morgan & Co. arranged a $500 million loan in 1915 to financially strained Britain and France, then the largest foreign loan in Wall Street history; the firm also served as purchasing agent for the Allies, helping secure almost $3 billion worth of munitions and raw materials.⁠[1][1]

After Pierpont’s death in 1913, his son J.P. Morgan Jr. (Jack) took over as senior partner and led the firm for three decades. In 1940 J.P. Morgan reorganized from a private partnership into a public company, with Jack as its first chairman.⁠[1][1]

In 1955 the Bank of the Manhattan Company merged with Chase National Bank, then the third largest bank in the United States, to form Chase Manhattan Bank. In 1959 then vice chairman David RockefellerDavid RockefellerDavid Rockefeller (1915–2017) was an American banker and philanthropist and the youngest son of John D. Rockefeller Jr. He worked at Chase Manhattan Bank for 35 years, serving as chairman and chief executive officer from 1969 to 1981; he led institutions including The Rockefeller University and the Council on Foreign Relations for many years and co-founded the Trilateral Commission in 1973.Open the full entry commissioned the design firm Chermayeff and Geismar Associates to create a new logo, producing the octagon; the solid blue octagon was adopted in 2004.⁠[1][1][1][1]

The legal entity of today’s listed JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a financial holding company incorporated under Delaware law in 1968.⁠[2]

David Rockefeller joined Chase National Bank in 1946, became an executive vice president after the 1955 merger, president in 1961, and chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan in 1969, retiring in 1981. In 1979 he and his longtime friend Henry KissingerHenry KissingerHenry Kissinger (1923–2023) was a German-born American diplomat and political scientist who served as US national security adviser from 1969 to 1975 and as the 56th secretary of state from 1973 to 1977, the first person to hold both posts at once. He led the opening to China, détente and arms control talks with the Soviet Union, the Vietnam ceasefire negotiations and shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East, and shared the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize with Le Duc Tho; his role in Chile, Cambodia, South Asia and East Timor drew lasting criticism.Open the full entry helped persuade President Jimmy CarterJimmy CarterJimmy Carter (1924–2024) was an American politician and Democrat who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. His administration brokered the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, signed the Panama Canal treaties and established relations with the People’s Republic of China, but he lost his reelection bid amid the energy crisis, inflation and the Iran hostage crisis; after leaving office he founded The Carter Center to work on mediation, election observation and disease control, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.Open the full entry to admit the deposed Shah of Iran to the United States for treatment, a move that helped precipitate the Iran hostage crisis.⁠[3][3][3][3][4][4]

In the same period, predecessor banks advanced retail banking technology: in 1969 Chemical Bank unveiled a cash machine, the precursor to the ATM, and in 1980 Bank One launched Channel 2000, an early home computer banking program.⁠[1][1]

In 2000 Chase Manhattan merged with J.P. Morgan & Co. to form today’s JPMorgan Chase. The company is built on more than 1,200 predecessor institutions, notably 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, Washington Mutual, The Bear Stearns Companies Inc. and First Republic.⁠[1][1][1]

On July 1, 2004, Bank One Corporation merged into JPMorgan Chase; Jamie Dimon, Bank One’s chairman and CEO, became president and chief operating officer of the combined company, then chief executive on January 1, 2006, and chairman a year later.⁠[5][6][6]

During the financial crisis, on March 16, 2008, the Federal Reserve Board approved the financing arrangement announced by JPMorgan Chase and Bear Stearns. In connection with the Bear Stearns merger, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York took control, through a purpose-built LLC, of a $30 billion portfolio of assets valued as of March 14, 2008, funded by a $28.85 billion term loan. The merger was completed on May 30, 2008.⁠[7][8][8][5]

On September 25, 2008, JPMorgan Chase acquired the banking operations of Washington Mutual Bank for $1.9 billion; because the fair value of the net assets acquired exceeded the price, the resulting negative goodwill was recognized as an extraordinary gain that year. The company’s 2008 net income was $5.6 billion, down from a record $15.4 billion in 2007.⁠[5][5][5]

In the first quarter of 2012, derivatives trades by London-based traders of the Chief Investment Office through its Synthetic Credit Portfolio—known as the “London Whale”—lost at least $6.2 billion. On March 14, 2013, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a 300-page bipartisan report finding that the office engaged in high-risk derivatives trading, mismarked its book to hide losses, disregarded risk indicators, manipulated risk models, dodged regulatory oversight and misinformed investors, regulators and the public. Subcommittee chairman Carl Levin said the trades showed how derivative risk controls could be bypassed or manipulated; ranking Republican John McCain criticized the bank for operating with a “too big to fail” mentality, while noting that regulators failed to use their tools to uncover the bank’s deceptions.⁠[9][9][9][9][9][9]

On September 19, 2013, the company settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission, paying a $200 million penalty, admitting the facts underlying the charges and publicly acknowledging that it violated federal securities laws; the Federal Reserve fined it $200 million the same day for deficiencies in oversight, management and controls of the Chief Investment Office. Penalties from US and UK regulators over the matter totaled about $920 million.⁠[10][11][11]

JPMorgan Chase resolved civil claims by the Justice Department, several state attorneys general, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and others over residential mortgage-backed securities activities of the firm, Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, paying a total of $9.0 billion (a $2.0 billion civil penalty and $7.0 billion in compensatory payments, including $4.0 billion to resolve the Federal Housing Finance Agency litigation) and committing to provide $4.0 billion in borrower relief by the end of 2017; as part of the settlement, it waived its right to seek indemnification from the FDIC for the Washington Mutual portion.⁠[8][8][8][8]

In January 2014 JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York over investigations relating to Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, forfeiting $1.7 billion to the United States and consenting to charges of failing to maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program and failing to file a suspicious activity report about the firm in October 2008, in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act; the charges would be dismissed if the bank complied for two years. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency imposed a $350 million civil money penalty, and FinCEN a $461 million penalty that was deemed satisfied by the forfeiture.⁠[8][8][8][8][8][8]

Among a series of government settlements over its foreign exchange sales and trading activities and controls, the company pleaded guilty in May 2015 to a single violation of federal antitrust law; the Department of Labor later granted exemptions allowing it to keep relying on the qualified professional asset manager exemption under ERISA during a ten-year disqualification period that began in January 2017.⁠[12][12][12]

The company settled with the Justice Department, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission over trading practices by former employees in the precious metals and US Treasuries markets from 2008 to 2016. Under a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department, it agreed to the filing of criminal charges of two counts of wire fraud, to be dismissed after three years if it met its obligations; across the three resolutions it paid about $920 million, including victim compensation.⁠[13][13][13][13][13]

On May 1, 2023, through the FDIC’s competitive bidding process, JPMorgan Chase acquired the substantial majority of First Republic Bank’s assets, including about $173 billion of loans and about $30 billion of securities, and assumed about $92 billion of deposits—insured and uninsured—and certain other liabilities, but not First Republic’s corporate debt or preferred stock; the FDIC provided loss-share agreements and $50 billion of five-year fixed-rate financing. Jamie Dimon said the government had invited JPMorgan Chase and others to step up, and that the deal modestly benefited the company and advanced its wealth strategy.⁠[14][14][14][14][14][14][14]

JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. was sued in federal court in the Southern District of New York by plaintiffs alleging that it knowingly facilitated Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking and other unlawful conduct by providing him banking services until 2013. In June 2023 the court preliminarily approved a settlement between the bank and the victim class under which the bank paid $290 million to a fund for Epstein survivors; in November 2023 the court granted final approval, rejecting objections including those of certain state attorneys general.⁠[15][15][15][15]

In August 2025 the US president issued an executive order titled “Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans” addressing access to financial services, and the company has been responding to inquiries from government authorities and others about its policies and services. In January 2026 President Donald J. Trump, in his personal capacity, and affiliated companies sued JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. and its CEO in Florida state court; the defendants removed the case to federal court, and the plaintiffs are challenging the removal. The quarterly report for the period ended June 30, 2026, records no ruling on the merits.⁠[12][12][12]

On January 7, 2026, JPMorgan Chase announced that Chase would become the new issuer of Apple Card; it had entered into a forward purchase commitment on December 30, 2025, to acquire the Apple credit card portfolio, with closing expected in about 24 months, and recorded a $2.2 billion provision for lending-related commitments for the transaction.⁠[2][2][2]

The company named Doug Petno and Troy Rohrbaugh, co-CEOs of the Commercial & Investment Bank, co-presidents effective immediately, with Petno becoming sole CEO of the Commercial & Investment Bank and Rohrbaugh CEO of Consumer and Community Banking; Marianne Lake, the head of Consumer and Community Banking, decided to retire. Dimon called it an important step in the board’s succession planning.⁠[16][16][16][16]

The company serves millions of consumers, small businesses and corporate, institutional and government clients in the United States and worldwide through its two brands. As of December 31, 2025, it had $4.4 trillion in total assets, $362.4 billion in stockholders’ equity and 318,512 employees; its 2025 net income was $57.0 billion on total net revenue of $182.4 billion. Its headquarters are at 270 Park Avenue in New York.⁠[17][2][2][2][2][2]

JPMorgan Chase & Co.: Official website: https://www.jpmorganchase.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[17]

X: Public account: https://x.com/jpmorgan (opens in a new window)⁠[18]