How a front for clean water became America’s largest and most controversial bank

Countries & Cities · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Chase Bank traces its origins to a 1799 scheme by Aaron Burr to build a water company, which secretly served as a front for a bank. Today, it is the only bank with a presence in every contiguous U.S. state, though its history is marked by significant ethical controversies and massive legal settlements.

The institution now known as Chase Bank began as the Manhattan Company, founded by Aaron Burr in 1799. While ostensibly created to supply New York City with clean water from the Bronx River, the company was actually a strategic front designed to establish a bank that could rival Alexander Hamilton’s Bank of New York. This dual-purpose charter allowed the company to use surplus funds for banking, a structure that would later prove pivotal during its 1955 merger with Chase National Bank. Because the Manhattan Company’s charter required unanimous shareholder consent for a takeover, the deal was structured as an acquisition of Chase by the Manhattan Company to bypass this legal hurdle.

Throughout the 20th century, the bank grew through aggressive acquisitions, including the Equitable Trust Company in 1930, which briefly made it the largest bank in the world. However, this expansion was accompanied by dark chapters. During the Nazi occupation of France, the bank's Paris branch, led by Carlos Niedermann, actively enforced restrictions against Jewish property and refused to release funds to Jewish account holders. Furthermore, declassified FBI files revealed that Chase National Bank facilitated the sale of 'Rückwanderer Marks'—a scheme that allowed Nazi Germany to amass over $20 million by selling currency stolen from Jewish refugees. Executives were never prosecuted for these activities because the bank’s legal team threatened to expose sensitive intelligence methods in court.

In the modern era, the bank has continued to face intense scrutiny. Between 2011 and 2013 alone, JPMorgan Chase paid $16 billion in fines and settlements, including penalties for illegally aiding regimes in Cuba, Sudan, Liberia, and Iran. Despite these controversies, the bank remains a dominant force in global finance. It achieved a milestone in 2021 by becoming the first bank to maintain a retail presence in all 48 contiguous United States, cementing its status as a central pillar of the American financial system.

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