Bill > SR42

Introduced Session

This resolution urges the President and Congress of the United States to enact legislation reinstating the separation between commercial and investment banking functions that existed under the "Glass-Steagall Act." The "Glass-Steagall Act" was enacted in 1933 to eliminate the speculative activities which caused the collapse of the banking system during the Great Depression. The "Glass-Steagall Act" curbed speculative activities by erecting a firewall between commercial and investment banking. Following the repeal of the "Glass-Steagall Act" in 1999, commercial banks merged with investment firms and other financial firms to form vast conglomerates. The newly formed financial conglomerates began engaging in irresponsible financial practices and speculative activities which contributed to the collapse of the housing market and in turn led to the worst recession since the Great Depression. Congress enacted the "Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act" in 2010, to address the root causes of the recession. However, the "Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act" does little to separate commercial and investment banking. Two bills currently introduced in the United States Congress, the "Return to Prudent Banking Act of 2017," and the "21st Century Glass-Steagall Act," of 2017 if enacted, would revive the separation between commercial banking and investment banking by imposing restrictions on affiliations between commercial banks and securities firms in a manner similar to that formerly provided in the "Glass-Steagall Act." The reinstatement of the separation between commercial banking and investment banking is necessary to strengthen our financial system and to put an end to the irresponsible financial practices and speculative activities that led to the collapse of the housing market and the subsequent recession.

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Shirley Turner (D)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Commerce Committee (on 02/03/2022)

Official Document