Ben

US banking in the "free banking" period

One of the most notable political issues for Andrew Jackson's presidency was the fight against the second bank and its attempts to get re-chartered once its charter had expired in 1836. The bill was vetoed and a period of free-banking would follow.

In New York in 1825 a report to the state senate was issued suggesting the repeal of restrictions against non-chartered banks into the banking system seeing as chartering process for banks was seen as scandolous.(Dowd) However, noteholder safety became a serious concern. A law was proposed that would require every non-chartered bank to deposit a designated amount of approved bonds to the state authoritiesin case the banks fail. If the banks do fail then all noteholders of that bank would be repaid with those deposits. The free entry and bond deposit propositions were the two central aspects of the 'free banking' Act, which was pass in April of 1838.