Regulatory Reform for the Deposit Financial Institutions–Retrospect and Prospects

Abstract

Regulatory reform relating to commercial banks and other deposit financial institutions has been frequently observed to be “crisis-bred.” The National Banking Act, along with fundamental but complementary legislation of 1863 and 1864, was in large measure stimulated by problems of the Civil War. The Federal Reserve Act was an outgrowth of the Panic of 1907 which vividly demonstrated the need for a central bank. The McFadden Act of 1927, the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932, the Reconstruction Finance Act of 1932, the Federal Home Loan Bank Act of 1932, the Home Owners' Loan Act of 1933, the Emergency Banking Act and the Banking Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Banking Act of 1935 all reflected reactions to crises of various dimensions.