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Thomas Ludlow Chrystie II (May 24, 1933 – December 24, 2013) was an American banker who served as the first Chief Financial Officer of Merrill Lynch & Company and industry pioneer who created the Cash Management Account.

Early life

Chrystie was born on May 24, 1933, in Manhattan, the son of Thomas Witter Chrystie, a lawyer and trustee of Columbia University, and Helen Duell Chrystie. His father was a descendant of John Albert Weygand, a founding trustee of King's College, appointed in the Royal charter of October 31, 1754. He graduated from the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, in 1951 and from Columbia College in 1955. After college, he was hired by Merrill Lynch. He left briefly to serve in the U.S. Air Force from 1956 to 1958. He received his M.B.A. from New York University in 1960.

Career

After Merrill Lynch went public in 1971, he served as its first Chief Financial Officer in charge of planning and development. He remained at the firm until his retirement in 1988.

Invention of the cash management account

During his tenure as CFO, Chrystie is credited with developing the cash management account, in which clients could stow dividend and interest income and earn interest rates higher than those offered by banks. His brainchild attracted 300,000 accounts, valued at $6 billion of new investment into Merrill Lynch and helped drive the firm's growth into a full-service financial provider and it soon became standard practice among the industry. By 1976, Merrill Lynch became the world's largest stockbroker and was the leading bank in mutual funds, commodity trading, and municipal bonds. Chrystie's invention of the C.M.A. was described by the ABA Banking Journal, "one of the top dozen or so events that changed the financial services industry."

Like his father and grandfather, Chrystie also served as a trustee of Columbia University. He was appointed in 1975.

After his retirement, he became a real estate developer. He owned the Wort Hotel and helped Aman Resorts develop Amangani in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Personal life

He is a direct descendant of Captain John Chrystie, a United States Army officer who graduated from Columbia in 1806 and played a major role in the Battle of Queenston Heights and is the namesake of Chrystie Street in Manhattan, New York. He is also a descendant, through his great-grandfather, Dr. Thomas Mackaness Ludlow Chrystie, of Commodore James Nicholson, who served in the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War.

He died on December 24, 2013, at a care facility in Charleston, South Carolina.

References

1. "85 Innovations 1972-1987 - Forbes.com". www.forbes.com. Archived from the original on January 17, 2003. Retrieved 2020-05-20.
2. Weiner, Eric J., 1967- (2007). What goes up : the uncensored history of modern Wall Street told as by the bankers, brokers, CEOs, and scoundrels who made it happen. Back Bay Books. ISBN 978-0-316-06637-2. OCLC 148722357.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
3. Meola, Andrew. "Bank of America (BAC) Stock Rises on Merrill Lynch's 100th Birthday". TheStreet. Retrieved 2020-05-21.
4. ^ Vitello, Paul (2014-01-14). "Thomas L. Chrystie, Bank Services Innovator on Wall St., Dies at 80". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-20.
5. "THOMAS CHRYSTIE, ATTORNEY, IS DEAD; Alumni Trustee of Columbia Was Descendant of One of School's Founders Headed College Council Active in Law Groups". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2021-08-29.
6. "Obituaries". Columbia College Today. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
7. Nocera, Joe. (2014). A piece of the action : how the middle class joined the money class. Simon & Schuster. pp. 154–158. ISBN 978-1-4767-3479-8. OCLC 892924791.
8. ^ Arnold, Laurence (January 5, 2014). "Thomas Chrystie, Creator of Cash Management Account, Dies at 80". Bloomberg. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
9. Smith, Winthrop H. Jr. auteur. (9 September 2014). Catching lightning in a bottle : how Merrill Lynch revolutionized the financial world. ISBN 978-1-118-96760-7. OCLC 938220154.
10. Cocheo, Steve (2003-08-01). "25 Years Later Merrill's CMA Is Still Making Waves. (Briefing)". ABA Banking Journal. 95 (8): 7. ISSN 0194-5947.
11. ^ "Columbia Daily Spectator 8 October 1975 — Columbia Spectator". spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2020-05-20.
12. "Trustees of the University" (PDF). Columbia University. November 11, 2006. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
13. Huffman, Mark. "Amangani celebrates 20 years". Jackson Hole News&Guide. Retrieved 2020-05-21.
14. Wyo, Paul Bruun, Jackson Hole. "Early Thanksgiving thanks to Tom Chrystie". Jackson Hole News&Guide. Retrieved 2020-05-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
15. "Skiing into Jackson Hole". Departures. Retrieved 2020-05-21.
16. Stevens, Frederick R. (Frederick Russell), 1874-1959. New York in the Society of the Cincinnati : a roster of New York officers in the Continental Line and their present representatives. OCLC 21262387.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
17. Hall, Henry (1891). Year book of the societies composed of descendants of the men of the Revolution, 1890. Republic Press. p. 280. OCLC 2750249.
18. Who's who in New York City and State. L.R. Hamersly Company. 1907. p. 280.

• 1933 births
• 2013 deaths
• Columbia College (New York) alumni
• New York University Stern School of Business alumni
• Merrill (company) people
• American businesspeople in real estate
• American financiers
• Businesspeople from New York City
• Taft School alumni
• American investment bankers