2018-01-21
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Commercial banks are the most significant of the financial intermediaries, accounting for some 60 percent of the nation's deposits and loans. The first bank to be chartered by the new federal government was the Bank of the United States, established in Philadelphia in 1791. By 1805 it had eight branches and served as the government's banker as well as the recipient of private and business deposits. The bank was authorized to issue as legal tender banknotes exchangeable for gold.
In the next three decades the number of banks grew rapidly in response to the flourishing economy and to the system of "free banking", that is, the granting of a bank charter to any group that fulfilled stated statutory conditions. Government fiscal operations were handled initially by private bankers and later (after 1846) by the Independent Treasury System, a network of government collecting and disbursing offices. The National Bank Act (1864) established the office of the comptroller of the currency to charter national banks that could issue national banknotes (this authority was not revoked until 1932). A uniform currency was achieved only after a tax on nonnational banknotes (1865) made their issuance unprofitable for the state-chartered banks. State banks survived by expanding their deposit-transfer function, continuing to this day a unique dual banking system, whereby a bank may obtain either a national or a state charter.
The stability hoped for by the framers of the National Bank Act was not achieved; banking crises occurred in 1873, 1883, 1893, and 1907, with bank runs and systemic bank failures. The Federal Reserve Act (1913) created a centralized reserve system that would act as a lender of last resort to forestall bank crises and would permit a more elastic currency to meet
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the needs of the economy. Reserve authorities, however, could not prevent massive bank failures during the 1920s and early 1930s.
The Banking Acts of 1933 and 1935 introduced major reforms into the system and its regulatory mechanism. Deposit banking was separated from investment banking; the monetary controls of the Federal Reserve were expanded, and its powers were centralized in its Board of Governors; and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was created.
Notes
be chartered - получить лицензию, быть зарегистрированные legal tender — законное средство платежа stated statutory conditions — объявленные уставные условия fiscal operations - фискальные операции (имеющие отношение к аккумулированию государственных доходов) treasury system — система казначейства disbursing — выплачивающий, расходный office of comptroller of the currency — управление валютногб
контролера framer - создатель lender of last resort — кредитор последней инстанции
Упражнения
*9. Найдите в тексте словосочетания с данными терминами.
уполномочивать; предоставлять лицензию; фискальные операций; законное средство платежа
*10. Соотнесите слова в левой колонке с их определениями в правой.
1. intermediary a. a person or a group of people having power
2. branch b. a place where funds are kept
3. treasury с a division or subdivision of an organization
4. framer. d. acting as a link between groups or people
5. authority e. a person who builds up or puts together
*ll. Укажите, в каком из приведенных значений данное слово употреблено в тексте.
1. to account a. to probe into, to analyze
b. to consider
с to be the sole or primary factor
2. to issue a. to discharge, to emit
b. to put forth or distribute officially с to publish
3. to grant a. to consent to carry out for a person
b. to bestow or transfer formally с to assume to be true
4. to handle a. to deal with
b. to try or examine with the hand с to manage, to direct
Ответьте на вопросы.
1. Are commercial banks the most significant of all financial
intermediaries?
2. When and where was the first US bank established?
3. What is the system of free banking?
4. What did the National Bank Act establish?
5. When was the authority to issue national banknotes revoked?
6. Why did state banks survive?
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