Former U.S. holding company incorporated in 1969 with the Chase Manhattan Bank as its main subsidiary.
The bank itself was created in 1955 by the merger of the Bank of Manhattan Co. (founded 1799) and the Chase National Bank (founded 1877). The creation of Chase Manhattan was part of a general movement in U.S. banking to establish holding companies that could bring together banks and financial institutions ordinarily excluded by law from the field of banking. In 1996 it merged with Chemical Banking Corp. (which then owned the nation's second largest bank) but kept the Chase Manhattan name. A merger with investment bank J.P. Morgan & Co. in 2000 created J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. See also David Rockefeller .