The 1907 U.S. stock-market panic halted after J.P. Morgan organized a private banking rescue.
The crisis began in October 1907 when a failed attempt to corner United Copper shares triggered runs on trust companies in New York. The Knickerbocker Trust Company collapsed, intensifying fear and withdrawals. Because the United States had no central bank, financial institutions lacked an automatic emergency lender.
J.P. Morgan gathered bankers in his library, inspected institutions' books, and arranged loans and guarantees. Treasury Secretary George Cortelyou supplied government funds, while clearinghouse certificates helped banks settle payments. Confidence gradually returned after several tense weeks.
The panic exposed weaknesses in the fragmented U.S. banking system. Its political aftermath helped produce the Aldrich–Vreeland Act and, in 1913, the Federal Reserve. It is distinct from the Panic of 1893 and the later Wall Street Crash of 1929.