This Day In Market History: Chemical Bank Merges With Chase Manhattan

Each day, Benzinga takes a look back at a notable market-related moment that occurred on this date.

What Happened? On March 31, 1996, Chemical Banking Corp. and Chase Manhattan Corp. merged to form Chase Manhattan.

Where The Market Was: The Dow finished the day at 5,587.14. The S&P 500 finished at 645.50.

What Else Was Going On In The World? In 1996, online auction platform eBay Inc EBAY and internet search engine Ask Jeeves were launched. The average American income was $36,300.

Formation Of Chase Manhattan: Chase Manhattan’s history dates all the way back to the Bank of the Manhattan Company, which was formed in 1799. Chemical Bank of New York also has a long history and was formed by The New York Chemical Manufacturing Company in 1824.

At the time the two banks merged in 1996, the $10 billion deal was the largest in history. The combined bank initially had about $297 billion in assets.

Chemical Bank, not Chase Manhattan, was the buyer in the deal. However, the combined bank adopted the better-known Chase Manhattan name.

In 2000, Chase Manhattan merged with J.P. Morgan & Co. to form JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM. Today, JPMorgan Chase is the largest U.S. bank with a $415 billion market cap.

To this day, the lineage of the current shares of JPMorgan Chase stock, which trade under the ticker JPM, can be traced back to Chemical Bank shares prior to 1996. JPMorgan Chase also still uses Chemical’s former headquarters at 270 Park Avenue in New York.

Photo: Flowerlamp, Wikimedia Commons