JPMorgan's Fall and Revival

"In 1990 JP Morgan was the strongest and most admired New York money-center bank, while leading rivals Chase and Citi were wounded ducks. A decade later Morgan was gone as an independent bank, swallowed up by a reborn Chase. JPMorgan Chase then went on to become the world's most admired and profitable bank. Nick Sargen with great insight and poignancy lays out the bank strategies and the managerial strengths and weaknesses that drove this latest chapter in the long history of American banking."

—Richard Sylla, Chairman, Board of Trustees of the American Museum of Finance and Emeritus Professor, New York University, USA

“After an illustrious and influential past, the House of Morgan ultimately became the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York, one of the finest institutions in American history.  Its disappearance in 2000 as an independent firm has fascinated and puzzled observers of the financial architecture ever since. Nick Sargen provides a fascinating and coherent mosaic of the internal issues and external pressures that led to the firm’s demise and its rebirth within the most successful of today’s megabanks.”

—Ingo Walter, Seymour Milstein Professor Emeritus, New York University, USA

“Nick Sargen was both an insider and an outsider at Morgan, and has therefore written a very insightful commentary about the growth of an institution that has moved to prominence both domestically and internationally.  It is a hugely worthwhile read.”

—Henry Kaufman, Henry Kaufman and Company, Inc.

“Nick Sargen’s book depicts the transformation in U.S. banking over the past four decades. Today, only three of the original money center banks are left: BoA was acquired by Nations Bank; Citicorp represents a mega-merger with Travelers Group; while JPMorgan Chase is the product of acquisitions by Chemical Bank which assumed their prestigious brands.  In effect, the number five bank in1980 won the New York City sweepstakes.  The question is how it was able to do so.   Sargen illustrates how Chemical was strategic and adept at integrating diverse cultures, whereas Morgan wanted to stay a wholesale bank while retaining the culture it cherished.”

—Robert Z. Aliber, Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago, USA

 “Arriving on Wall Street in 1984, I found that every individual I met from Morgan was impressive, yet their results suggested the whole was less than the sum of the parts.  Being present at the creation of JPMorgan Chase in 2000, I experienced the merger’s time of trouble, had confidence that the new firm eventually would overcome adversity, and wasn’t surprised when it emerged to global leadership under Jamie Dimon.  Nick Sargen’s lively and clearly-told tale solves – to my great satisfaction – the mystery of how it all happened and why.”

—John Lipsky, Peter G. Peterson Distinguished Scholar, Johns Hopkins University, USA