Northern Trust Corporation is an American financial services company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, that caters to corporations, institutional investors, and ultra high net worth individuals. Northern Trust is one of the largest banking institutions in the United States and one of the oldest banks in continuous operation. As of June 30, 2022, it had $1.7trillion in assets under management and $17trillion in assets under custody. Northern Trust Corporation is incorporated in Delaware.[3]
The company has offices in 20 US states and locations across 23 countries in Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific region. It is ranked 486th on the Fortune 1000 as of February 2019.[4]
Over 20% of the wealthiest families in the United States are clients of the company's wealth management division. It provides personal trust, investment management, custodian bank, and philanthropic services, financial consulting, guardianship and estate administration, qualified retirement plans and private and business banking. Wealth Management focuses on high-net-worth individuals and families, business owners, executives, professionals, retirees, and established privately held businesses in its target markets with assets typically exceeding $75million. Wealth management services are delivered through a network of 85 offices in 18 U.S. states as well as offices in London, Guernsey, and Abu Dhabi.[2]
Northern Trust was founded in 1889 by Byron Laflin Smith in a one-room office in the Rookery Building in The Loop, Chicago, with a focus on providing trust and banking services for the city's prosperous citizens. It opened on August 12, 1889, with 7 accounts and $137,981.25 in deposits.[6] Smith provided 40% of the bank's original capitalization of $1million,[7] and the original 27 shareholders included Marshall Field, Martin A. Ryerson, and Philip D. Armour.[citation needed]
The company's headquarters building at 50 South LaSalle Street in the Financial District of Chicago dates from 1905 and was designed by Frost and Granger.[8] The structure opened with five stories, but is designed to accommodate additional floors. However, when the bank needed additional space in 1965, it opted to construct a new 14-story building in the international style to the west and selected Cesar Pelli as its architect.[9]
In March 1914, Byron Laflin Smith died and his son, Solomon Albert Smith, took over the bank.[10]
The company's conservative policies served it well during the 1920s and the company's assets actually grew during the Great Depression, while many other banks suffered from bank failure.[11][6]
By 1941, nearly half of all the bank's commercial accounts were drawn from outside the Chicago metropolitan area. During World War II, the company took part in the government's war bond drives and provided loans for manufacturing war materials under special government programs. The war created more opportunities for the bank; all sectors of its business expanded.[6]
During the 1950s, Northern Trust spent heavily to develop automated banking services, including the first fully automated financial statements for trust clients.[6]
In October 1963, Solomon A. Smith died. Solomon Byron Smith became chairman of the executive committee and his brother, Edward Byron Smith, became chairman.[12]
In 1986, the bank acquired First Lake Forest Corporation for $61million in cash.[13]
Edward Byron Smith retired as chief executive officer in 1979.[14] He was succeeded by E. Norman "Bud" Staub.[15] A few years later, Philip W. K. Sweet took over but he resigned in 1984.[16]
In 1984, Weston Christopherson, former CEO of Jewel, took the helm. He is credited with guiding the bank through a difficult period when sour loans to Latin American countries were hurting profits. When oil prices dropped suddenly in the early 1980s, many South American nations realized they could not repay their enormous bank loans. The bank suffered uncharacteristically high losses. Aggressive management, loan reserves, and write-offs enabled the bank to restore its asset quality. During Christopherson's six years at Northern Trust, profits rose from $34million to $113million.[17] At the time of his retirement in 1990, the company was the 11th most profitable of the 100 largest banks in the United States.[18]
In 1990, company veteran David W. Fox became the seventh CEO of the company.[19]
William A. Osborn was named president and chief operating officer in 1993 and became chairman and chief executive officer, in addition to president, in 1995.[20][21]
In July 2005, Northern Trust and Enron reached a $365million settlement[22] with 20,000 employees of Enron after the energy company's collapse (see Enron scandal). Northern Trust had managed the 401k plan for Enron's employeees, who alleged mismanagement and breach of fiduciary duty. The initial settlement was reduced a year later to $32.5million in an agreement approved by federal judge Melinda Harmon, with Northern Trust neither admitting nor denying wrongdoing.[23]
Osborn stepped down as president in 2006 and as CEO on January 1, 2008.[20][21] Frederick H. "Rick" Waddell then became chairman and CEO.[24]
During his tenure, Waddell was able to guide the bank through the financial crisis. In 2009 Northern Trust was one of 3 banks able to gain large profits. Other than M&T Bank, Northern Trust was the only bank in the S&P 500 Index not to lower its dividend during the financial crisis of 2007–2008.[25]
In November 2008, the United States Department of the Treasury invested $1.5billion in the company as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program and in June 2009, the company repurchased the investment from the Treasury.[26] The company had been criticized for heavy spending on parties during a 2009 golf tournament that it sponsored, after receiving government funds.[27]
The company strives to give approximately 1.5% of its pre-tax profits to charities every year. In the 10 years preceding 2014, the company gave over $120million in support of non-profit organizations.[28]
The company currently sponsors The Northern Trust, a PGA TOUR event that is the first event in the FedEx Cup playoffs. From 2008 through 2017, Northern Trust sponsored the Northern Trust Open in Los Angeles, also a PGA TOUR event.
On October 2, 2017, Northern Trust acquired UBS Asset Management's fund administration servicing units in Switzerland and Luxembourg.[29]
Effective January 1, 2018, Michael O'Grady became chief executive officer of the company.[30] He also assumed the chairmanship on January 23, 2019.[31]
Related Research Articles
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional companies. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 20,600 staff and was a major electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper company, with claimed revenues of nearly $101 billion during 2000. Fortune named Enron "America's Most Innovative Company" for six consecutive years.
Citigroup Inc. or Citi is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of Citicorp, the bank holding company for Citibank, and Travelers in 1998; Travelers was spun off from the company in 2002.
The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at CIBC Square in the Financial District of Toronto, Ontario. The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was formed through the 1961 merger of the Canadian Bank of Commerce and the Imperial Bank of Canada, in the largest merger between chartered banks in Canadian history. It is one of two "Big Five" banks founded in Toronto, the other being the Toronto-Dominion Bank.
The Charles Schwab Corporation is an American multinational financial services company. It offers banking, commercial banking, investing and related services including consulting, and wealth management advisory services to both retail and institutional clients. It has over 380 branches, primarily in financial centers in the United States and the United Kingdom. It is on the list of largest banks in the United States by assets. As of December 31, 2023, it had $8.5 trillion in client assets, 34.8 million active brokerage accounts, 5.2 million corporate retirement plan participants, and 1.8 million banking accounts. It also offers a donor advised fund for clients seeking to donate securities. It was founded in San Francisco, California, and is headquartered in Westlake, Texas.
Ameriprise Financial, Inc. is an American diversified financial services company and bank holding company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It provides financial planning products and services, including wealth management, asset management, insurance, annuities, and estate planning.
Mesirow is a privately held financial services company based in Chicago, Illinois. The firm is employee-owned and 100% of voting shares are held by employees. Mesirow provides investment management, capital markets, wealth management and investment banking services.
LGT Group is the largest royal family-owned private banking and asset management group in the world. LGT, originally known as The Liechtenstein Global Trust, is owned by the princely House of Liechtenstein through the Prince of Liechtenstein Foundation and led by its royal family members H.S.H. Prince Maximilian von und zu Liechtenstein (CEO) and H.S.H. Prince Philipp von und zu Liechtenstein (chairman).
Stifel Financial Corp. is an American multinational independent investment bank and financial services company created under the Stifel name in July 1983 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange on November 24, 1986. Its predecessor company was founded in 1890 as the Altheimer and Rawlings Investment Company and is headquartered in downtown St. Louis, Missouri.
SEI Investments Company, formerly Simulated Environments Inc., is a financial services company headquartered in Oaks, Pennsylvania, United States. The company describes itself as "a global provider of investment processing, investment management, and investment operations solutions". SEI provides products and services to institutions, private banks, investment advisors, investment managers, and private clients. Through its subsidiaries and partnerships in which the company has significant interests, SEI manages, advises or administers $1 trillion in hedge funds, private equity, mutual funds and pooled or separately managed assets. This includes $352 billion in assets under management and $683.3 billion in client assets under administration, as of 2019.
A family office is a privately held company that handles investment management and wealth management for a wealthy family, generally one with at least $50–100 million in investable assets, with the goal being to effectively grow and transfer wealth across generations. The company's financial capital is the family's own wealth.
WSFS Financial Corporation is a financial services company. Its primary subsidiary, WSFS Bank, a federal savings bank, is the largest and longest-standing locally managed bank and trust company headquartered in Delaware and the Greater Delaware Valley. WSFS operates from 114 offices, 88 of which are banking offices, located in Pennsylvania (57), Delaware (39), New Jersey (14), Florida (2), Virginia (1) and Nevada (1) and provides comprehensive financial services including commercial banking, retail banking, cash management and trust and wealth management.
UMB Financial Corporation is an American financial services holding company founded in 1913 as City Center Bank and based in Kansas City, Missouri. It offers a number of financial services from checking and savings accounts, credit services including home mortgages, auto loans, business loans and credit cards, to investing and wealth management, all are offered to individuals, companies and offers additional customization options for private wealth management.
The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, commonly known as BNY, is an American international financial services company headquartered in New York City. It was formed in July 2007 by the merger of the Bank of New York and Mellon Financial Corporation. Through the lineage of Bank of New York, which was founded in 1784 by a group that included American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, BNY is regarded as one of the three oldest banks in the United States and among the oldest in the world. It was the first company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In 2024, it was ranked 130th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations by total revenue. As of 2024, it is the 13th-largest bank in the United States by total assets and the 84th-largest in the world. BNY is considered a systemically important financial institution by the Financial Stability Board.
Macquarie Group Limited, more commonly known as Macquarie Bank, is an Australian multinational investment banking and financial services group headquartered in Sydney and listed on the ASX.
Bank of America Private Bank was founded in 1853 as the United States Trust Company of New York. It operated independently until 2000, when it was acquired by Charles Schwab, and Co. and subsequently sold to, and became a subsidiary of, Bank of America in 2007. Bank of America Private Bank provides investment management, wealth structuring, and credit and lending services to clients.
CIBC Mellon is a joint venture founded in 1996 between the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and then Mellon Financial Corporation to offer asset servicing to institutional investors. Based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, it comprises two sister companies, CIBC Mellon Trust company and CIBC Mellon Global Securities Services Company.
Guggenheim Partners, LLC is a global investment and advisory financial services firm that engages in investment banking, asset management, capital markets services, and insurance services.
UBS Group AG is a multinational investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Headquartered simultaneously in Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres as the largest Swiss banking institution and the largest private bank in the world. UBS investment bankers and private bankers are known for their strict bank–client confidentiality and culture of banking secrecy. Because of the bank's large positions in the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific markets, the Financial Stability Board considers it a global systemically important bank.
Gary P. Brinson is a former investor and money manager. He is the founder of Brinson Partners a Chicago-based asset management firm acquired in 1994 by Swiss Bank Corporation, the predecessor of UBS, and Adams Street Partners. Prior to retiring in 2000, Brinson would run the asset management division of Swiss Bank Corporation and later UBS Global Asset Management.
Wintrust is a financial holding company in the United States that operates 15 chartered community banks in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Wintrust is a relatively medium-sized banking institution in the United States and it trades on the Nasdaq Global Select Market with stock symbol WTFC. Wintrust is the second largest banking company in Chicago.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
$6.59 billion (2021)
US$1.3 trillion (March 31, 2023)
