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1791 Bank of the U.S.
It was created to handle any type of debt and create a standard currency. After the Revolutionary War, America was in debt and had no stable currency. It is the oldest bank in America, and it was only in effect for 20 years after Congress voted to abandon it in 1811. There had been a bank bill to set the bank in place. -
1816 Second Bank of the US
After the War of 1812, America needed something to handle its finances. President Madison established this bank in order to finance the debt. It was not well supported by most of Congress. It ran for 20 years and expired in 1836. It was modeled after the first bank, and managed up to 25 branches. -
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Civil War Currencies
In order to pay for the war and the massive debt the country already had, Congress passed the Legal Tender Act to print paper money and sell bonds to raise money. The paper money was also known as greenbacks, and did not have gold to back it up as the government was so poor. It could be used to pay taxes. -
National Banking Act of 1863
The National Bank Act of 1863 allowed for a national banking system that loaned money to pay for the war, as well as a national system for coins and money. It created a system of national banks as well, and helped to shape the current banking policy. -
1913 Federal Reserve Act
The Act created the Federal Reserve System in place currently. It was meant to establish stability with a Central Bank. It helped enforce the safety of deposits. It also allowed money to be printed for economic reassurance. Along with that it meant to help the employment rates. -
Banking in the Great Depression
After the stock market crashed, many people panicked and tried to take out their money. There was hardly any money in circulation, so no good loans meant businesses would falter. There were several banking panics, and many banks began to fail and shut down. An estimate of 140 billion dollars was lost by that. In 1934 FDR established the FDIC to make sure depositors would not lose their funds. -
Glass-Steagall Banking Act
It prohibited commercial banks from having a major part in investment of banking business. It was created to help manage the banking failures of the Great Depression, and established the FOMC. Overall, it helped prohibit banks from paying interest on demand deposits. Rates also had a limit, all with intentions to restore the commercial and investment banking relations believe to have caused the Depression in the first place. -
1970's Banking
The Central Bank created policies to help employment, which caused high inflation. In turn, the Bank needed to counteract its troubles and raised interest rates very high. It caused disaster amongst many as they had trouble paying back their cars and houses. The stock market was doing awful as well, and it was a period of slow economic growth. -
1982 Banking
The Fed raised interest rates to try and eliminate the inflation occurring then. Because of that, businesses didn't spend as much, and it slowed the economy down. Oil supplies were also fluctuating by the Iranian embargo. The employment increased to over 10% for several months. By lowering the tax rate, Reagan had help ended it. -
1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act
This act was made to repeal to Glass Steagall Act. It was meant to help reorganize the financial industry and to make it more applicable to modern times and occurrences. It requires banks to explain practices to customers and to keep them informed, as well as keeping data safe.
