The Dual Banking System of the United States of America (PDF)

Master's Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Law - Public Law / Constitutional Law / Basic Rights, University of Carthage (Faculty of Legal, Political and Social Sciences), course: Common Law, language: English, abstract: This master's thesis explains the dual banking system in the USA.

The experience of a national bank similar to the British bank was the first step in the creation of the dual banking system in the United States of America, this latter system was enforced through history.

The government felt the need to a national bank ¿The First National Bank - because of some debt from a Revolutionary War, and due to the diversity of currency forms. Up to the time of the bank's charter, coins and bills were issued by state banks. Proposed by Alexander Hamilton, the Bank of the First United States was chartered for twenty years in 1791 to serve as a repository for federal funds and as the government's fiscal agent.

The creation of a national bank seemed unconstitutional at that time for many members of the congress. They argued that such an institution would be implementing a monetary monopoly within the United States especially that one of the reasons of this creation is to unify the currency, which means that the National Bank will be the only authorized party that can issue money notes.

As a private institution, shares were sold to private parties, and after few years of the creation of the bank, 70 percent of the shares were owned by foreigners. This fact was not strange to the American financial system, but politicians had worries about it. Thus, in 1811 after 20 years of the first charter, the re-chartering process failed and did not pass in the congress.

The second relevant fact that enforced the dual banking system was the two national banking acts in 1863 and in 1864, The National Bank Acts were two United States federal laws that established a system of national charters for banks, the United States national banks.