Morgan, J P, Jr.

Morgan, J(ohn) P(ierpont), Jr.

(born Sept. 7, 1867, Irvington, N.Y., U.S.—died March 13, 1943, Boca Grande, Fla.) U.S. banker and financier. He joined J.P. Morgan and Co. in 1892 and took control of it in 1913 on the death of his father, J.P. Morgan. In World War I he served as purchasing agent in the U.S. for the British and French governments and organized the underwriting of more than $1.5 billion in Allied bonds. He pooled funds with other bankers in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the crash of 1929. The Banking Act of 1933 compelled his firm to separate its investment-banking and commercial-banking activities. Morgan, Stanley and Co. became a new investment-banking firm, while Morgan himself remained head of J.P. Morgan & Co., which was from then on strictly a commercial-banking firm.