jpmorganchase.com

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is one of the oldest operating financial services firms in the world. The company, headquartered in New York City, is a leader in investment banking, financial services, asset and wealth management and private equity. With assets of $1.7 trillion, JPMorgan Chase is currently the second largest banking institution in the United States, behind Citigroup. The hedge fund unit of JPMorgan Chase is the largest hedge fund in the United States with $34 billion in assets as of 2007. Formed in 2000 when Chase Manhattan Corporation acquired J.P. Morgan & Co., the firm serves millions of consumers in the United States and many of the world's most prominent corporate, institutional and governmental clients.

In 2004, the company merged with Bank One Corp., bringing on board current chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon as president and COO and designating him as CEO William 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 at Citigroup. Dimon became CEO in January 2006 and Chairman in December 2006.

The Chase brand named is used for credit card services in the United States and Canada and the bank's retail banking activities in the United States. The JPMorgan brand is used by the Investment Bank as well as the Wealth & Asset Management Group's partially merged Private Bank and Personal Client Services divisions. Fiduciary activity within W&A is done under the aegis of JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. -- the actual trustee. The newly acquired Bear Stearns private client group is expected to operate under the name "Bear Stearns Wealth Management, a JPMorgan Company" within the Wealth & Asset Management structure.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Type	Public (NYSE: JPM)
Founded	1799
Headquarters	New York, New York
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	James L. Dimon (Chairman and CEO)
Industry	Finance and insurance
Products	Investment banking Financial services
Market cap	US$ 145.881 billion (2007)
Revenue	▲ US$ 116.353 billion (2007)
Operating income	▲ US$ 46.133 billion (2007)
Net income	▲ US$ 15.365 billion (2007)
Total assets	▲ US$ 1.78 trillion (June 30, 2008)
Employees	180,667 (2007)
Website	www.jpmorganchase.com www.jpmorgan.com www.chase.com

JPMorgan Chase Employment

Interviewing with JPMorgan Chase

The JPMorgan Chase interview varies greatly by job type.  Candidates reported a wide variety of interview formats, including 1:1, panel, skills tests/presentations, and phone interviews.  The overall difficulty rating is "Easy" (2.6 out of 5), with most candidates indicating a "Positive" or "Neutral" interview experience.

Employee Compensation

JP Morgan Chase employs a wide variety of professionals in the financial services and information technology fields.  JPMorgan Chase salary and bonus structures vary greatly by each job.  Below are common positions with salary and pay details from current employees:

• JP Morgan Chase Teller pay - $10.61/hr (Average, USD)
• JP Morgan Chase Customer Service Representative pay - $11.70/hr (Average, USD)
• JP Morgan Chase Personal Banker salary -  $35,388 (Average, USD)
• JP Morgan Chase Investment Banking Analyst salary - $64,292 (Average, USD)
• JP Morgan Chase Branch Manager salary - $69,036 (Average, USD)

History

Chemical Banking Corporation

 

Chemical Bank Logo used prior to its merger with Chase Manhattan Bank

The New York Chemical Manufacturing Company was founded in 1823 as a maker of various chemicals. In 1824, the company amended its charter to perform banking activities and created the Chemical Bank of New York. After 1851, the bank was separated from its parent and grew organically and through a series of mergers, most notably with Corn Exchange Bank in 1954, Texas Commerce Bank (a large bank in Texas) in 1986, and Manufacturer's Hanover Trust Company in 1991 (the first major bank merger "among equals"). At many points throughout this history, Chemical Bank was the largest bank in the United States (either in terms of assets or deposit market share).

In 1996, Chemical acquired the Chase Manhattan Corporation taking the more prominent Chase name. In 2000, the combined company acquired J.P. Morgan & Co. and combined the two names to form what is today JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPMorgan Chase retains Chemical Bank's headquarters at 277 Park Avenue and stock price history.

Chase Manhattan Bank

 

Logo used by Chase prior to rebranding and its merger with J.P. Morgan & Co. Created by Chermayeff & Geismar.

The Chase Manhattan Bank was formed upon the 1955 purchase of Chase National Bank (established in 1877) by the Bank of the Manhattan Company (established in 1799), the company's oldest predecessor institution. The Bank of the Manhattan Company was the creation of Aaron Burr, who transformed The Manhattan Company from a water carrier into a bank.

Led by David Rockefeller during the 1970s and the 1980s, Chase Manhattan emerged as one of the largest and most prestigious banking concerns, with leadership positions in syndicated lending, treasury and securities services, credit cards, mortgages, and retail financial services. Weakened by the real estate collapse in the early 1990s, it was acquired by Chemical Bank in 1996 but retained the Chase name. Prior to its merger with J.P. Morgan & Co., Chase acquired San Francisco-based Hambrecht & Quist in 1999 for $1.35 billion.

According to page 114 of An Empire of Wealth by John Steele Gordon, the origin of this strand of JPMorgan Chase's history runs as follows:

"At the turn of the nineteenth century, obtaining a bank charter required an act of the state legislature. This of course injected a powerful element of politics into the process and invited what today would be called corruption but then was regarded as business as usual. Hamilton's political enemy -- and eventual murderer -- Aaron Burr was able to create a bank by sneaking a clause into a charter for a company, called the Manhattan Company, to provide clean water to New York City. The innocuous-looking clause allowed the company to invest surplus capital in any lawful enterprise. Within six months of the company's creation, and long before it had laid a single section of water pipe, the company opened a bank, the Bank of the Manhattan Company. Still in existence, it is today J.P.Morgan Chase, the second largest bank in the United States."

J.P. Morgan & Company

 

J.P. Morgan & Co. logo prior to its merger with Chase Manhattan Bank in 2000

The heritage of the House of Morgan traces its roots back to the partnership of Drexel, Morgan & Co. which in 1895, was renamed J.P. Morgan & Co. (see also: J. Pierpont Morgan). Arguably the most influential financial institutions of its era, J.P. Morgan & Co. 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, J.P. Morgan & Co. 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 that made it the dominant railroad transporter in New England.

 

September 16, 1920: a bomb exploded in front of the headquarters of J.P. Morgan Inc. at 23 Wall Street, injuring 400 and killing 38 people.

Built in 1914, 23 Wall Street was known as the "House of Morgan," and for decades the bank's headquarters was the most important address in American finance. At noon, on September 16, 1920, a terrorist bomb exploded in front of the bank, injuring 400 and killing 38. Shortly before the bomb went off, a warning note was placed in a mailbox at the corner of Cedar Street and Broadway. The warning read: "Remember we will not tolerate any longer. Free the political prisoners or it will be sure death for all of you. American Anarchists Fighters." While theories abound about who was behind the Wall Street bombing and why they did it, after twenty years of investigation the FBI rendered the file inactive in 1940 without ever finding the perpetrators.

In August 1914, Henry P. Davison, a Morgan partner, traveled to the UK and made a deal with the Bank of England to make J.P. Morgan & Co. the monopoly underwriter of war bonds for UK and France. The Bank of England became a "fiscal agent" of J.P. Morgan & Co. and vice versa. The company also invested in the suppliers of war equipment to Britain and France. Thus, the company profited from the financing and purchasing activities of the two European governments.

In the 1930s, all J.P. Morgan & Co. along with all integrated banking businesses in the United States, was required by the provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act to separate its investment banking from its commercial banking operations. J.P. Morgan & Co. chose to operate as a commercial bank, because at the time commercial lending was perceived to be more profitable and prestigious business in the post depression era. Additionally, many within J.P. Morgan believed that a change in the climate would allow the company to resume its securities businesses but it would be nearly impossible to reconstitute the bank if it were disassembled.

In 1935, after being barred from securities business for over a year, the heads of J.P. Morgan made the decision to spinoff its investment banking operations. 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 through the 1980s before beginning to migrate back toward the use of the J.P. Morgan brand. In 1988, the company once again began operating exclusively as J.P. Morgan & Co.

Bank One Corporation

 

Bank One logo used prior to its merger with JPMorgan Chase

Bank One Corporation was formed upon the 1998 merger between Banc One of Ohio and First Chicago NBD. These two large banking companies had themselves been created through the merger of many banks. This merger was largely considered a failure until Jamie Dimon -- recently ousted as President of Citigroup -- took over and reformed the new firm's practices -- especially its disastrous technology mishmash inherited from the many mergers prior to this one. Mr. Dimon effected more than sufficient changes to make Bank One Corporation a viable merger partner for JPMorgan Chase.

Bank One Corporation traced its roots to First Bancgroup of Ohio, founded as a holding company for City National Bank of Columbus, Ohio and several other banks in that state, all of which were renamed "Bank One" when the holding company was renamed Bank One Corporation. With the beginning of interstate banking they spread into other states, always renaming acquired banks "Bank One", though for a long time they resisted combining them into one bank. After the NBD merger, adverse financial results led to the departure of CEO John B. McCoy, whose father and grandfather had headed Banc One and predecessors. Jamie Dimon, a former key executive of Citigroup, was brought in to head the company. JPMorgan Chase completed the acquisition of Bank One in 2004.

Bear Stearns

At the end of 2007, Bear Stearns was the fifth largest investment bank in the United States but its market capitalization had deteriorated through the second half of 2007. On Friday, March 14 2008 Bear Stearns & Co. Inc. lost 47% of its market value to close at $30.00 per share as rumors emerged that clients were withdrawing capital from the bank. Over the following weekend it emerged that Bear Stearns might prove insolvent and on or around March 15, 2008 the Federal Reserve engineered a deal to prevent a wider systemic crisis from the collapse of Bear Stearns.

On March 16 2008, JPMorgan Chase announced that it had plans to acquire Bear Stearns & Co. Inc. in a stock swap worth $2.00 per share or $240 million pending mutual shareholder approval scheduled within 90 days. Until then, JPMorgan Chase has agreed to guarantee all Bear Stearns trades and business process flows. Two days later, on March 18 2008, JPMorgan Chase announced the acquisition of Bear Stearns for $236 million. The stock swap agreement was completed in the late night hours of March 18 2008, with JPMorgan exchanging 0.05473 of each of its shares for one Bear share, which were valued at $2 each.

On March 24 2008, a revised offer was announced at approximately $10 per share. Under the revised terms, JPMorgan immediately acquired a 39.5% stake in Bear Stearns (using newly issued shares) at the new offer price and gained a commitment from the board (representing another 10% of the share capital) that its members would vote in favour of the new deal. The merger was completed by June 6, 2008 and Bear Stearns is currently part of JPMorgan Chase.

Other recent acquisitions

In 2006, JPMorgan Chase purchased Collegiate Funding Services, LLC, and created Chase Education Finance.

On April 7 2006, JPMorgan Chase announced it would be swapping its corporate trust unit for The Bank of New York Co.'s retail and small business banking network. The swap valued The Bank of New York business at $3.1 billion and JPMorgan's trust unit at $2.8 billion and gives Chase access to 338 additional branches and 700,000 new customers in the New York, New Jersey, and Indiana operations

On 26 March 2008, JPMorgan acquired the UK-based carbon offsetting company ClimateCare.

 Acquisition History

The following is an illustration of the company's major mergers and acquisitions and historical predecessors (this is not a comprehensive list):

JPMorgan Chase

(merged 2000) Chase Manhattan Bank (merged 1995) Chemical Bank (merged 1991) Chemical Bank The Chemical Bank of New York (est. 1823)   Manufacturers Hanover (merged 1961)   Manufacturers Trust Company (est. 1905)     Hanover Bank (est. 1873)       Chase Manhattan Bank (merged 1955)   Bank of the Manhattan Company (est. 1799)     Chase National Bank of the City of New York (est. 1877)       J.P. Morgan & Co. (f.k.a Morgan Guaranty Trust) (merged 1959)   Guaranty Trust Company of New York (est. 1866)     J.P. Morgan & Co. ("The House of Morgan") (est. 1895)       Bank One (acq. 2004) Banc One Corp. (merged 1968)   City National Bank & Trust Company     Farmers Saving & Trust Company     First Chicago NBD (merged 1995)   First Chicago Corp. (est. 1863)     NBD Bancorp. (Formerly National Bank of Detroit) (est. 1933)       Louisiana’s First Commerce Corp.     Bear Stearns (acq. 2008)

This article uses content from http://www.wikipedia.org