I went through this problem earlier last year. I had canceled a Chase card and later needed my credit card statement to make a warranty claim on an item I purchased. Chase could not recover my past credit card statements. The reason I was given was that closed accounts are periodically "purged" and all information is deleted from the system. The account rep did say that I could write a letter and maybe somebody somewhere could help me, but the process was quite complicated and I ended up not doing it.

In contrast, I recently had to pull up a past statement on my closed American Express card, which had been closed for almost a year. One phone call to Amex and a few minutes later, the entire card history was re-activated on my online profile and I could pull up anything I wanted.