Did You Know? World's Largest Bank JPMorgan Was Started As A Drinking Water Company

With a market cap of more than $500 billion, JPMorgan Chase is currently the world¡¯s largest bank. Headquartered in New York, USA, and led by CEO Jamie Dimon since the year 2005, JPMorgan manages assets worth more than $3 trillion at present.

But little do people know about how JPMorgan was started. Even in your wildest of guesses, it¡¯s difficult to tell what the bank used to originally do. Well, the world¡¯s largest bank was originally a drinking water supplier! Read on as we unfold this story which traces back to the year 1799.

JPMorgan Was Started As A Drinking Water Company

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In 1799, the New York State legislature chartered the Manhattan Company, JPMorgan Chase's first predecessor organization, to provide "pure and wholesome" drinking water to the expanding city. Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton were two of its founders.

The Manhattan Company was then permitted by a clause in its charter to utilize its excess capital for banking activities. The Bank of The Manhattan Company went on to open for business in five months, following Hamilton's Bank of New York as the second commercial bank in New York City. Dissolving his banking monopoly, Hamilton broke off his relationship with the water company.

Multiple US Banks Combined To Become JPMorgan

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Later, in 1996, a number of sizable American banks came together to form JPMorgan Chase. These included Chase Manhattan Bank, which was established in 1799, J.P. Morgan & Co., which was founded in 1871, Chemical Bank, which was founded in 1824, and Bank One, which was founded in 1877.

The Bank of the Manhattan Company (founded in 1799), the company's oldest predecessor institution, acquired Chase National Bank (established in 1877) to form the Chase Manhattan Bank. Aaron Burr was the driving force behind the Bank of the Manhattan Company's transformation from a water carrier to a bank.

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From Drinking Water Supplier To World's Largest Bank

jp morgan/epa

Summing it up, a state legislature act was necessary to obtain a bank charter at the start of the nineteenth century. Naturally, this introduced a strong political element into the process and encouraged what is now known as corruption, but at the time it was accepted as normal. Aaron Burr, the political rival of Hamilton and the man who would murder him, managed to establish a bank by smuggling a provision requiring The Manhattan Company to supply clean water to New York City into its charter. The harmless-appearing clause permitted the business to put any excess cash toward any legitimate venture. The company established the Bank of the Manhattan Company within six months of its founding, long before it had installed a single water pipe. Still in existence, JPMorgan Chase is today the largest bank in the world.

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