Banking in the United States began in the late 1790s along with the country's founding and has developed into highly influential and complex system of banking and financial services. Anchored by New York City and Wall Street, it is centers on various financial services namely private banking, asset management, and deposit security.
The earliest remnants of the banking industry can be traced to 1790 when the Bank of Pennsylvania was founded to fund the American Revolutionary War. After merchants from the Thirteen Colonies needed a current as a medium of exchange, the Bank of North America was opened to facilitate more advances financial transactions.
As of 2018, the largest banks the United States were JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs. It is estimated that banking assets were equal to 56 percent of the U.S. economy.
Video Banking in the United States
History
In the early 1700s, merchants traveled from Britain to the United States and established the Bank of Pennsylvania in 1790 to fund the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). During this time, the Thirteen Colonies had not established currency and use informal trade to finance their daily activities. On January 4, 1782, the first commercial bank in the U.S., Bank of North America, opened. Soon after U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton created the Bank of the United States (1798), a national bank meant to maintain American taxes and pay off foreign debt. After President Andrew Jackson closed the bank in 1832 and redirect all bank assets into U.S. state banks. State banks began printing money rapidly sparking run away inflation and leading to the Panic of 1837. Investment banking began in the 1860s with the establishment of Jay Cooke & Company, one of the first issuers of government bonds. In 1863, the National Bank Act was passed creation a national currency, a federal banking system, and make public loans. During the 1900s, the Federal Reserve was established and began executing monetary policy. The Great Depression saw to the separation between investment and commercial banking known as the "Glass-Steagall Act". In 1991, the Act was repealed leading to the 2008 financial crisis.
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Regulatory agencies
While most of these countries have only one bank regulator, in the U.S., banking is regulated at both the federal and state level. Depending on its type of charter and organizational structure, a banking organization may be subject to numerous federal and state banking regulations. Unlike Switzerland and the United Kingdom (where regulatory authority over the banking, securities and insurance industries is combined into one single financial-service agency), the U.S. maintains separate securities, commodities, and insurance regulatory agencies--separate from the bank regulatory agencies--at the federal and state level. U.S. banking regulations address privacy, disclosure, fraud prevention, anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism, anti-usury lending, and the promotion of lending to lower-income populations. Some individual cities also enact their own financial regulation laws (for example, defining what constitutes usurious lending).
Federal Reserve system
The central banking system of the United States, called the Federal Reserve system, was created in 1913 by the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, largely in response to a series of financial panics, particularly a severe panic in 1907. Over time, the roles and responsibilities of the Federal Reserve System have expanded and its structure has evolved. Events such as the Great Depression were major factors leading to changes in the system. Its duties today, according to official Federal Reserve documentation, are to conduct the nation's monetary policy, supervise and regulate banking institutions, maintain the stability of the financial system and provide financial services to depository institutions, the U.S. government, and foreign official institutions.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is a United States government corporation created by the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. It provides deposit insurance, which guarantees the safety of deposits in member banks, up to $250,000 per depositor per bank. As of November 18, 2010, the FDIC insures deposits at 6,800 institutions. The FDIC also examines and supervises certain financial institutions for safety and soundness, performs certain consumer-protection functions, and manages banks in receiverships (failed banks). Since the start of FDIC insurance on January 1, 1934, no depositor has lost any insured funds as a result of a bank failure.
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is a U.S. federal agency established by the National Currency Act of 1863 and serves to charter, regulate, and supervise all national banks and the federal branches and agencies of foreign banks in the United States. Thomas J. Curry was sworn in as the 30th Comptroller of the Currency on April 9, 2012.
Office of Thrift Supervision
The Office of Thrift Supervision is a U.S. federal agency under the Department of the Treasury. It was created in 1989 as a renamed version of another federal agency (that was faulted for its role in the Savings and loan crisis). Like other U.S. federal bank regulators, it is paid by the banks it regulates. On July 21, 2011, the Office of Thrift Supervision became part of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Bank mergers and closures
Bank mergers happen for many reasons in normal business, for example, to create a single larger bank in which operations of both banks can be streamlined; to acquire another bank's brands; or due to regulators closing the institution due to unsafe and unsound business practices or inadequate capitalization and liquidity. Banks may not go bankrupt in the United States. Depositor accounts are insured up to $250,000 as of October 2008 per individual per bank by the FDIC. Banks that are in danger of failing are either taken over by the FDIC, administered temporarily, then sold or merged with other banks. The FDIC maintains a list of banks showing institutions seized by regulators and the assuming institutions.
Banking privacy
In the United States, banking privacy and information security is not protected through a singular law nor is it an unalienable right. The regulation of banking privacy is typically undertaken by a sector-by-sector basis. The most prominent federal law governing banking privacy in the U.S. is the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB). This regulates the disclosure, collection, and use of non-public information by banking institutions. Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) serves as the primary protector of banking privacy by fining violators of federal and state banking privacy laws. Unlike banking in Switzerland or other European countries, violations of banking privacy are usually a civil offense not a criminal one.
List of banks
According to the FDIC, there were 6,799 FDIC-insured commercial banks in the United States as of February 11, 2014. Every member of the Federal Reserve System is listed along with non-members who are also insured by the FDIC. The five largest banks by assets in 2011 were JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs.
See also
- Financial services in the United States
- Banking in Switzerland
- Banking in Germany
- Banking in the United Kingdom
References
Bibliography
- Rothbard, Murray Newton (1983). The Mystery of Banking. New York, N.Y.: Richardson & Snyder. ISBN 978-0-943940-04-5. OCLC 56139773.
- Rothbard, Murray Newton (2002). A History of Money and Banking in the United States: The Colonial Era to World War II. Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises Institute. ISBN 0-945466-33-1. OCLC 51205107.
- Lisa, Sotto (2014). Banking Privacy in the United States. New York City, New York: Hunton & Williams. pp. 191-198.
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