Bank Timeline
1791 Bank of the U.S.
1816 Second Bank of the U.S.
Civil War (printing currency)
The Legal Tender Act of 1862 helped the U.S. government pay for the Civil War by authorizing the printing of paper currency. It authorized the printing of $450 million dollars in federal paper currency.
1863 National Banking Act
1913 Federal Reserve Act
Established in December of 1913, this act created the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States. It was signed into law by Woodrow Wilson and designed to regulate banking to help smaller banks stay in business and keep customers secure and their finances safe.
1930's Great Depression
Throughout and directly after the Great Depression of the 1930's, banking structure was weak. Distrusting banks and feeling that they were unsafe, customers wanted to take all of their money out of the banks. This caused banks to fail, furthering people's distrust of banks. In an attempt to resolve this crisis, the Emergency Banking Relief Bill put poorly managed banks under the control of the Treasury Department and granted government licenses (which functioned as seals of approval) to those that were solvent.
Banking in 1982
Bank failures began to increase in 1982 and continuing forward until a slight alleviation of the issue in the early 1990's. 1982 also saw the passing of the Garn-St. Germain Act, which expanded FDIC powers to assist troubled banks and established the Net Worth Certificate program for savings and loans to assist these institutions in acquiring needed capital.
1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act
Also known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act, this was 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.