Mercantile National Bank

Bank Information

Episode Type: Suspension → Closure
Bank Type: national
Bank ID: 1067
Charter Number: 1067
Start Date: October 1, 1907*
Location: New York, New York (40.714, -74.006)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: 6564d028

Response Measures

None

Description

Article (1912) recounts events during the Panic of 1907: after the Morse scandal and trouble at Mercantile National Bank, the doors of the National Bank of North America ... had to be closed. No explicit mention of a depositor run or later reopening in the excerpt. Date of suspension inferred as October 1907 (Panic of 1907); permanence of closure not specified in article, so classification as suspension_closure is based on phrasing that the doors had to be closed.

Events (1)

1. October 1, 1907* Suspension

Cause: Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details: Loss of public confidence due to the Morse affair and related upheaval (Morse influence eliminated; scandal led to closures).
Newspaper Excerpt: The doors of the National Bank of North America ... had to be closed.
Source: newspapers

Newspaper Articles (1)

1. January 19, 1912 New-York Tribune New York, NY

Article from New-York Tribune, January 19, 1912

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Article Text

Companies' Capital $125,000,000. February, nine months before the banker's downfall. he was master of eighty-one ocean-going steamships and many Hudson River steamers: he was head of thirteen banks and dominated the management of a score of other corporations. At that time Morse controlled companies whose capital stock amounted to $125,000,000. The methods employed by Morse in the acquisition of his tremendous power were viewed with apprehension by conservative business men. His expected downfall came as the forerunner of the great panic of 1907. The first trouble was with the Mercantile National Bank, from which, after great upheaval. the Morse influence was eliminated. F. Augustus and Otto Heinze were also ousted at the same time. Five days later came the announcement that Morse and E. R. Thomas. close business associates, would withdraw from all conection with New York banks, and every institution with which the name of Morse was connected suffered severely in the loss of public confidence. The doors of the National Bank of North America and of the New Amsterdam National Bank had to be closed.