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1791 Bank of the U.S.
The First Bank of the United States was needed because the It was created because the government had a debt from the Revolutionary War, and each state had a different form of currency. It was built while Philadelphia was still the nation's capital. Alexander Hamilton conceived of the bank to handle the colossal war debt, and to create a standard form of currency. -
Civil War (printing curreney)
The term greenback refers to paper currency (printed in green on one side) issued by the United States during the American Civil War. They were in two forms: Demand Notes, issued in 1861–1862, and United States Notes issued in 1862–1865. -
1863 National Banking Act
The National Bank Act (1863) was a United States federal law that established a system of national charters for the United States national banks. It encouraged development of a national currency based on bank holdings of U.S. Treasury securities. It also established the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) as part of the Department of the Treasury. This was to establish a national security holding body for the existence of the monetary policy of the state. -
1913 Federal Reserve Act
The 1913 U.S. legislation that created the current Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve Act intended to establish a form of economic stability through the introduction of the Central Bank, which would be in charge of monetary policy, into the United States. -
1930's Great Depression (banking)
Whether the fear of bank failures caused the Depression or the Depression caused banks to fail, the result was the same for people who had their life savings in the banks – they lost their money. At the beginning of the 30s, there was no such thing as deposit insurance. If a bank failed, you lost the money you had in the bank. -
Glass-Steagall Banking Act
An act the U.S. Congress passed in 1933 as the Banking Act, which prohibited commercial banks from participating in the investment banking business. The Glass-Steagall Act was sponsored by Senator Carter Glass, a former Treasury secretary, and Senator Henry Steagall, a member of the House of Representatives and chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee. The Act was passed as an emergency measure to counter the failure of almost 5,000 banks during the Great Depression. -
Banking
It's the 1970s, and the stock market is a mess. It loses 40% in an 18-month period, and for close to a decade few people want anything to do with stocks. Economic growth is weak, which results in rising unemployment that eventually reaches double-digits. The easy-money policies of the American central bank, which were designed to generate full employment, by the early 1970s, also caused high inflation. -
Banking
A law passed by Congress with the intent of making savings and loan institutions more competitive. The best known of its many provisions was a section that enabled these so-called thrifts to offer money market deposit accounts with no interest rate ceiling, allowing them to compete more effectively with money market mutual funds for capital.The Act also raised the ceiling on their direct investments in nonresidential real estate from 20-40% of assets, and their consumer lending from 20-30% of -
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act
A regulation that Congress passed on November 12, 1999, which attempts to update and modernize the financial industry. The main function of the Act was to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act that said banks and other financial institutions were not allowed to offer financial services, like investments and insurance-related services, as part of normal operations. -
1816 Second Bank of the U.S.
The Second Bank of the U.S. was chartered in 1816 with the same responsibilities and powers as the First Bank. The Bank was supposed to maintain a "currency principle" -- to keep its specie/deposit ratio stable at about 20 percent. Instead the ratio bounced around between 12% and 65 percent. It also quickly alienated state banks by returning to the sudden banknote redemption practices of the First Bank.