What bank do you do the most business at? If you live in America, there is a significant chance that you do banking with Chase Bank, the consumer baking division of JPMorgan Chase and the biggest bank in America! With recent news of major government bank bailouts, the question of the safety of “too big to fail” banks has been resurrected. Do you trust the bank that houses your money? We have gathered 5 Chase Bank facts because it is important to be informed:
5 JP Morgan Chase Facts
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- Chase Bank is the biggest bank in the United States by total assets. (source) Chase Bank had $3,201,942,000,000 in total assets as of December 31st, 2022! Only five countries (United States, China, Japan, Germany, and India) have a greater GDP. Chase Bank is worth more than the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Russia, and many other countries.
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- Salmon P. Chase’s image is on the $10,000 bill. (source) Chase Bank was named after Salmon P. Chase, the Secretary of Treasury under Abraham Lincoln and architect of the National Banking System. Over the course of his career, Chase also served as chief justice of the United States, governor of Ohio, and representative of Ohio in the Senate. This makes him one of the few American politicians who served in all three branches of the federal government, as well as serving in the highest state-level ofice. He even sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1868!
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- Chase Bank has over 4,700 branches and 15,000 ATMs. (source) Not only is it the biggest bank by total assets, it also leads the pack with the most branches!
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- JP Morgan Chase & Co. is one of the world’s oldest and largest financial institutions. (source) The Manhattan Company, JPMorgan Chase’s earliest predecessor, was established in 1799. Since then, over 1,200 predecessor institutions came together to form the company we know today. It played a role in significant history-shaping ventures such as funding the Erie Canal, establishing major railroads, and assembling U.S. Steel, the world’s first billion-dollar corporation. It also helped establish General Electric and International Harvester.
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- J.P. Morgan coordinated with other wealthy parties to supply gold to the U.S. Treasury during the Panic of 1873. (source) The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered two decades of stagnation known as the “Long Depression”. He stepped in during the Panic of 1907 as well, when many banks found themselves teetering on bankruptcy with no means of saving themselves. He pledged his own money as well as rallying other wealthy individuals to help stabilize the banking system.
Featured image photo credit: Mike Mozart, 2014. Originally found on Wikimedia.org. Image was resized and cropped. Creative Commons 2.0.
