Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.

Infobox_Company
company_name = Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
company_
company_type = Private Partnership
foundation = 1931
(merger of Brown Bros. & Co. (1818) and Harriman & Co. (1912)
location =
num_employees = 4000+ (2008) [ [http://www.bbh.com/company/bbhtoday.html BBH Today] ]
industry = Investment Banking
Commercial banking
revenue = N/A
net_income = N/A
homepage = [http://www.bbh.com www.bbh.com]

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. (BBH) is one of the oldest and largest partnership banks in the United States.Fact|date=January 2008 The firm has 40 partners and employs nearly 4,000 people in eight domestic and seven overseas locations [ [http://www.bbh.com/company/bbhtoday.html] ] . As of 2008, the firm had $1 trillion USD in assets under custody, including over $16 billion for families and individuals. Brown Brothers Harriman provides financial services to a variety of mutual funds, hedge funds, asset managers, financial institutions, and insurance companies.

The company was formed in 1931 by the merger of two banks, Brown Brothers & Co. and Harriman and Company.

In addition to a full range of commercial banking facilities, the firm is among the leading providers of global custody, foreign exchange, private equity, merger and acquisition services, investment management for individuals and institutions, personal trust & estate administration and securities brokerage [ [http://www.bbh.com/company/bbhtoday.html] ] .

History

Like many private banks, Brown Brothers Harriman did not start out in finance. Begun nearly 200 years ago as an importer of linen, the company entered the banking business as a by-product of its success as a dry-goods merchant. [ [Kouwenhoven, John: Partners in Banking (1968)] ]

The original founding fathers were the sons of Alexander Brown. He was born in 1764 in County Antrim, Ireland. He started work as an auctioneer in Belfast’s linen market before immigrating to Baltimore in 1800. There he started a textile business, which expanded to trading in tobacco, agriculture and foreign exchange. His sons helped him to expand this business, Alex. Brown & Sons, by starting branches in Philadelphia and New York. [ [Kouwenhoven, John: Partners in Banking (1968)] ]

The original Brown bank was founded in Philadelphia in 1818 and was called John A. Brown and Co., after one of Alexander’s sons. A New York branch was opened by another of Alexander’s sons, James, and the business became known as Brown Brothers and Co. The New York office directed most of its efforts to trading with the British branch in Liverpool. [ [Kouwenhoven, John: Partners in Banking (1968)] ]

Shortly following the panic of 1837, BB withdrew from most of its lending business. Two of the brothers, John and George, sold their shares in the company to the other two brothers, William and James. During the recovery from this economic turmoil, they chose to focus solely on currency exchange and international trade. During the panic of 1857, BB was one of the few banks that did not close its doors, and actually supported several banks both in America and England. [ [Kouwenhoven, John: Partners in Banking (1968)] ]

In 1931, the firm merged with Harriman Brothers and Company, an investment company started in 1912 with railway money.

Its initial partners were:
* W. Averell Harriman
* E. Roland Harriman
* Moreau Delano
* Thatcher Brown
* Prescott Bush
* Granger Kent Costikyan
* Louis Curtis
* Robert A. Lovett
* Ray Morris
* Knight Woolley

The new firm shifted its emphasis from investment banking to commercial banking, investment advisory services and custody.

In 2003, the company's headquarters moved from 59 Wall Street, which it had built and occupied since the 1920s, to the Marine Midland Building at 140 Broadway.

Locations

The firm has locations in the following fifteen cities around the world:

*Boston, Mass.
*Charlotte, North Carolina
*Chicago, Illinois
*Dallas, Texas
*Dublin
*Grand Cayman
*Hong Kong
*London
*Luxembourg
*Jersey City, New Jersey
*New York, New York
*Palm Beach, Florida
*Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
*Tokyo
*Zurich

References

External links

* [http://www.bbh.com/ Brown Brothers Harriman website]
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,740853,00.html Time Magazine Dec. 22, 1930]
* [http://www.jstor.org/view/00076805/sp030063/03x1092z/0 Irving Katz review of, Partners in Banking: A historical portrait of a great private bank Brown Brothers Harriman Co., John A. Kouwenhoven, Business History Review, 1968]
* [http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/144.html Records of the Temporary National Economic Committee]