American financier and fund-raiser for the federal government during the American Civil War.

At 18 Cooke entered the Philadelphia banking house of E.W. Clark and Co., and three years later he became a member of the firm. In 1861 he opened his own banking house in Philadelphia and floated a war loan of $3,000,000 for the state of Pennsylvania. He was engaged by the United States Treasury Department in 1862 for the sale of $500,000,000 worth of bonds. His services were secured again in 1865, when he disposed of three series of notes totaling $830,000,000. In 1870 Cooke's firm undertook to finance the construction of the Northern Pacific Railway but failed at the approach of the financial crisis of 1873. By 1880 he had discharged all his obligations and had again become wealthy.