Marshall & Ilsley

Marshall & Ilsley Corporation (also known as M&I Bank) was a U.S. bank and diversified financial services corporation headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that was purchased by Bank of Montreal in 2010.

The bank was founded in 1847 and by 2008 the bank had assets of $63.5 billion and over 250 branches. After the acquisition, Bank of Montreal combined the Marshall & Ilsley Corporation operations into its existing U.S. subsidiary Harris Bank.

History

In 1847, Samuel Marshall, a Pennsylvania native, founded an exchange brokerage in a downtown Milwaukee cobbler's shop. Although Wisconsin did not allow state-chartered banks at the time, Marshall's company provided a number of traditional banking services, such as deposits and loans. In 1849, he took on Maine native Charles Ilsley as a partner, and the company took the Marshall & Ilsley name a year later. When Wisconsin finally allowed state-chartered banking in 1852, M&I took out the first such charter, for a bank in Madison.

For most of its first century, the bank had a reputation for conservatism. This approach actually worked to M&I's advantage during major financial crises such as the Panic of 1893 and the stock market crash of 1929; it was one of the few major banks in Wisconsin to survive the latter. However, after selling the Madison bank in the late 19th century, it did business solely in Milwaukee for over six decades.