Albert Henry Wiggin

Wiggin and J.P. Morgan, Jr. in 1917 in Manhattan at a war bond parade Albert Henry Wiggin (February 21, 1868 – May 21, 1951) was an American banker. General Electric's Owen D. Young once described him as "the most colorful and attractive figure in the commercial banking world" of his time. Wiggin was also the only member of the Federal Reserve Bank to have a law written precisely against his actions, the "Wiggin Provision", when Albert was forced to "resign in disgrace after it was revealed that he had been short-selling his own bank’s stock"

Biography Born in the town of Medfield, Massachusetts, Albert Wiggin was the son of a Unitarian minister, James Henry Wiggin, and Laura Newton. He had a brother, Langley Wiggin.

Wiggin graduated from English High School of Boston in 1885 and went on to work for .B Moors & Company as a runner. Eight months later, he worked as a bookkeeper for another Boston bank run by his uncle called the National Bank of the Commonwealth. At the age of twenty-three, he worked his way up towards an assistant for a national bank examiner in Boston. In 1892 he married Jessie Duncan Hayden with whom he had two daughters. In 1894 he became the assistant cashier of the Third National Bank of Boston.

Wiggin had an integral role in creating commercial and industrial accounts that ultimately gained Chase's revenue. He also invited other important businessmen from other big companies to see if they wanted to become Chase directors. Chase's deposits had an immediate effect as they soared from $91 million at the end of 1910 to $2.074 billion twenty years later. Capital and surplus soon followed by increasing from $13 million to $358 million. The amount of Shareholders Chase had gone from twenty in 1904; to 2,189 in 1921; to 50,510 in 1929, and even reached 89,000 by 1933. Wiggin was not alone; other executives in powerful positions had done the same thing. The committee counsel, Ferdinand Pecora, said of Wiggins, "In the entire investigation, it is doubtful if there was another instance of a corporate executive who so thoroughly and successfully used his official and fiduciary position for private profit" (Pecora, p. 161). As a result of all the controversy, the "Wiggin Provision" was promptly named after him which prevented company directors from selling short on their own stocks and making a profit from their own company's demise.