Chase Manhattan Bank, N. A.

Chase Manhattan Bank, N. A. 

a commercial US bank and the principal center of the Rockefeller financial group. The bank was created in its present form in 1955 by the merger of the Bank of the Manhattan Company (founded 1799) and the Chase National Bank (founded 1877). The bank’s board of directors and approximately 50 of its divisions are located in New York City. The bank has close ties with major petrochemical concerns (Standard Oil Company, Allied Chemical Corporation), electronics firms, machine-building companies (American Telephone and Telegraph Company, Honeywell Inc.), and insurance corporations. In the 1970’s the bank stepped up its program of foreign expansion in Latin America, Asia, and Europe through its specialized subsidiary Chase International Investment Corporation.

As of 1976, the Chase Manhattan Bank had approximately 70 divisions, subsidiaries, and associated (amalgamated) banks in various countries, 15 representative facilities in foreign countries, including Moscow, and approximately 40 financial companies specializing in long-term investment and equipment leasing. The bank’s total balance at the close of 1976 was $44.7 billion. Loans totaled $30.2 billion; securities, $3.4 billion; deposits and current accounts, $37.6 billion; and capital and reserves, $2.0 billion.

E. D. ZOLOTARENKO