JPMorgan Chase slavery disclosure, 2005

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is the first company to acknowledge that two of its predecessor banks had specific links to the slave trade.

The disclosure did not make clear what happened to those people.

A federally chartered bank in May 1933 assumed some of the failed banks assets

We apologize to the African-American community, particularly those who are descendants of slaves, and to the rest of the American public for the role that Citizens Bank and Canal Bank played,

JPMorgan officials said the bank undertook the study after Chicago passed an ordinance in 2003 requiring companies that do business with the city to research their history to determine any links to slavery.

Citizens Bank and Canal Bank, both based in Louisiana

signed by William B. Harrison Jr., the bank's chairman and chief executive, and James Dimon, the president and chief operating officer

1931 Chase Bank takes control of Canal

The bank said that it is a “very different company than the Citizens and Canal Banks of the 1800s”.

JP Morgan said that it was setting up a $5m scholarship programme

Because of defaults by plantation owners, Citizens and Canal ended up owning about 1,250 slaves.

About 13,000 slaves were used as loan collateral between 1831 and 1865.

“Slavery was tragically ingrained in American society, but that is no excuse.”