$60 billion Merger to Create Largest Credit Card Issuer

While JP Morgan Chase has always been a powerhouse on Wall Street, it is now trying to get more business from Main Street.

In the nearly $60 billion merger with Bank One, JP Morgan Chase gains a retail business big in credit cards, mortgages, asset management and treasury services. The deal will also add to J.P. Morgan Chase’s financial prowess, creating an institution with $1.1 trillion in assets, rivaling the nation’s largest financial services conglomerate, Citigroup, which has $1.21 trillion in assets.

The union will also create the largest credit card issuer in the US, according to David Robertson, publisher of The Nilson Report, an industry newsletter. Bank One is currently the third-largest credit card issuer with more than $70 billion of loans outstanding, trailing only Citigroup and MBNA Corp.

Bank One has more than 1,800 branches that spread across the U.S.

The deal will mark the second merger for Bank One. Nearly six years ago, Bank One, which was founded in Columbus, moved headquarters to Chicago as part of its acquisition of First Chicago NBD Corp.

“Bank One is a major acquisition in the sense that it provides them with a regional deposit base. JP Morgan had a relatively weak deposit base,” said Brad Hintz, an analyst with Sanford Bernstein. “It allows them to become much more like Citigroup.”