Banks of The United States
A timeline for civics class..
The First Bank
It was created around 1971 by Alexander Hamilton. It is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is still there today as a landmark that made history. Hamilton believe it was needed so the nations credit, finances, and the government could ameliorate. Hamilton also had goals, he wanted to get rid of war debt, create a new government, and he wanted to create the first bank with a new currency. But unfortunately Thomas Jefferson and James Madison did not agree with Hamilton's ideas. They believed that his ideas went against the constitution. Hamilton had to be approved by the president, which at the time was George Washington. Even though most of the parties believed it was unconstitutional Washington signed it. The first bank opened March 19th of the same year (1971).
The Second Bank
This bank was created in 1816 also by Hamilton. Which is located in Philadelphia with the first bank. The purpose of this bank was to handle all finances, and hold the United states treasures. This is the bank that the president had chartered. There was a war in 1812 that led to the government failure. There was a lack of currency and finances, this led to an oncoming alliance that was created to help. But a few years after in 1819 the United states went threw a major finance issues, this was known as the panic of 1819. This was caused by the Napoleonic wars, which was the French and Napoleon. It also has become a historical landmark.
The First Form of Paper Money
This happened around the time of the civil war in the 1860's. They were called demand notes and was United States first form of money. It is a demand to pay a certain amount.They were much difference then our money/currency today. There were only a $5,$10, and a $20 dollar bill. They got their nickname "green-backs" because the back of the dollar was literally green.
National Banking Act
This happened in 1863-1864 it created the first national bank system. They encouraged people to produce and use the currency. It made banks and banking not be controlled by the state governments. The reason they did this is because before the act charters would have been bribed from the states. This act was created to end the bribing and corrupted banks. The act was said to have converted about 1,500 banks to national banks. After the numbers increased tremendously, but decreased because of national requirements were not as strict on state banks. Which later led to another act in 1865, it forced a 10% tax on state banks notes. It mostly inspired the banks to join the national system, which again made the amount of national banks go up. These "controlling" banks are still known to be significant today. (But not the first and second bank of course..)
Federal Reserve Act 1913
The Federal Reserve act was the first set up of the federal reserve system. It created private and public federal reserved banks. There were twelve at the time which each had different branches, directors, and boundaries. Each member was picked out by the president (at the time was Dwight Eisenhower) and was confirmed by the United States senate. Then in 1935 everything got reformed, which created a federal reserve system (twelve members) and a new currency for the US. It was created so the US could be financial stable even in rough or stressful times. (Which brings up the next topic..)
The Great Depressions of the 1930's (Banks)
The great depressions is known for the worldwide economic fall after the second world war. It was known to of lasted several years, but for America it is when the stock prices fell drastically and people had no money at all. After the stock market fell thousands of people withdrew all their money they had. There were no money in the banks to lend to people, which also means that there was no way to give out loans. In 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to end the panic, and succeeded by saving around a thousand banks. He gave them a three day holiday so people would shot withdrawing money. It was called the emergency banking act of 1933. This is also where his famous quote came from "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself". In 1934 the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Cooperation) was created so when a person deposits they do not loose their insured funds.
Glass-Steagall Act 1932
Basically was the more complete version of the banking act which I talked about previously. It gave the OK to have a federal reserved system and federal reserved banks.
Gramm-Leach-Billey Act 1999
(Hey, I was born just a few months before the act!) It was an act that went against the Glass-Steagall act. It was created to get more financial services competition by connecting themselves to banks, and all financial service providers for other purposes.