YEAR |
EVENT |
| 1601 | First insurance legislation in the U.K. enacted. Modern insurance has its root in this law concerning coverages for merchandise and ships. |
| 1735 | Friendly Society, first insurance company in the U.S., established in Charleston, S.C. The mutual insurer went out of business in 1740. |
| 1759 | First life insurance company established in Philadelphia by the Synod of the Presbyterian Church. |
| 1762 | Equitable Life Assurance founded. Was the world’s oldest mutual insurer until it failed in 2001. |
| 1782 | Pennsylvania chartered first bank in the U.S. |
| 1790 | The federal government refinanced all federal and state Revolutionary War debt, issuing $80 million in bonds. These became the first major issues of publicly-traded securities, marking the birth of the U.S. investment markets. |
| 1791 | Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, established first Bank of the United States. |
| 1792 | Insurance Company of North America, first stock insurance company, established. |
| | The Buttonwood Agreement, pact between 24 brokers and merchants to trade securities on a common commission basis, marks origins of The New York Stock Exchange. Bank of America is first listed stock. |
| 1809 | Rhode Island was the scene of first bank failure. |
| 1849 | New York passed first general insurance law in the U.S. |
| 1850 | Franklin Health Assurance Company of Massachusetts offered first accident and health insurance. |
| 1863 | Office of the Comptroller of the Currency established in the U.S. Treasury Department. Authorized to charter banks and issue national currency. |
| 1875 | American Express established first pension plan in the U.S. |
| 1880 | First corporate surety company established. |
| 1890 | First policies providing benefits for disabilities from specific diseases offered. |
| 1898 | Travelers Insurance Company issued first automobile insurance policy in the U.S. |
| 1909 | St. Mary’s Cooperative, first U.S. credit union, formed in New Hampshire. |
| | Massachusetts passed first state credit union law. |
| 1911 | Group life insurance for employees introduced. |
| 1913 | Federal Reserve established to replace J.P. Morgan as lender of last resort. |
| 1916 | National Bank Act, limiting bank insurance sales except in small towns, passed. |
| 1920 | Financial options introduced. |
| 1924 | First mutual funds established in Boston. |
| 1929 | Stock market crash. Nearly 10,000 U.S. banks failed. |
| 1932 | Federal Home Loan Bank Act established Federal Home Loan Bank System to act as central credit system for savings and loans institutions. |
| 1933 | Glass-Steagall Act, separating banking and securities industries, passed by Congress. |
| | Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, guaranteeing accounts up to $2,500, opened. |
| | Securities Act of 1933, to regulate registration and offering of new securities, including mutual funds, to the public, passed. |
| 1934 | Securities Exchange Act passed. Authorized Securities and Exchange Commission to provide for fair and equitable securities markets. |
| | Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation established by Congress to insure savings and loans deposits. Replaced by Savings Association Insurance Fund in 1989. |
| | Federal Credit Union Act of 1934 authorized establishment of federally-chartered credit unions in all states. |
| 1936 | Revenue Act of 1936 established tax treatment of mutual funds. |
| 1940 | Investment Company Act set structure and regulatory framework for modern mutual fund industry. |
| 1944 | National Association of Investment Companies, predecessor to the Investment Company Institute, formed and began collecting statistics. |
| 1950 | First package policies for homeowners insurance introduced. |
| 1955 | First U.S.-based international mutual fund introduced. |
| 1956 | Bank Holding Company (BHC) Act, putting multiple bank holding companies under federal supervision, passed. Stipulates that nonbanking activities of BHCs must be "closely related to the business of banking." |
| 1960 | Bank Merger Acts of 1960 and 1966 set standards for mergers and placed them under federal authority. |
| 1961 | Banking industry introduced fixed rate certificates of deposit. |
| 1962 | Keogh plans, providing savings opportunities for self-employed individuals, introduced under the Self Employed Individuals Tax Retirement Act. |
| 1968 | Mortgage insurance introduced. |
| 1970 | U.S. government introduced mortgage-related securities to increase liquidity. |
| | National Credit Union Administration created to charter and supervise federal credit unions. |
| | National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund created by Congress to insure members’ deposits in credit unions up to the $100,000 federal limit. Administered by the National Credit Union Administration. |
| 1971 | Municipal bonds insured for first time in arrangement between American Municipal Bond Assurance Corporation (predecessor to Ambac Assurance Corporation) and Borough Medical Arts Building in Alaska. |
| 1972 | Money market mutual funds introduced. |
| 1974 | Automated teller machines (ATMs) widely introduced. |
| | Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) set minimum standards for pension plans in private industry; established the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to protect pension benefits. |
| 1975 | SEC deregulated broker commissions by eliminating fixed commissions brokers charged for all securities transactions. |
| 1976 | First individual variable life insurance policy issued. |
| 1977 | Banking industry introduced variable rate certificates of deposit. |
| | Community Reinvestment Act passed to encourage banks to meet credit needs of their local communities. |
| 1978 | International Banking Act limited the extent to which foreign banks could engage in securities activities in the U.S. |
| 1979 | Congress created the Central Liquidity Facility, credit union lender of last resort. |
| 1980 | Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act provided universal requirements for all financial institutions, marking first step toward removing restrictions on competition for deposits. |
| | The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve authorized banks to establish securities subsidiaries to combine the sale of securities with investment advisory services. |
| 1982 | Garn-St.Germain Depository Institutions Act authorized money market accounts and expanded thrifts’ lending powers. |
| | Stock market futures contracts introduced. |
| 1983 | Federal government introduced collateralized mortgage obligations. |
| | Bank of America bought discount securities broker, Charles Schwab. Schwab reacquired the discounter in 1987. |
| 1987 | Federal Reserve ruling interpreting Section 20 of Glass-Steagall as permitting separately capitalized affiliates of commercial bank holding companies to engage in a variety of securities activities on a limited basis. |
| 1989 | Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act, providing government funds to insolvent savings and loan institutions (S&Ls) from the Resolution Trust Corporation and incorporating sweeping changes in the examination and supervision of S&Ls, established. |
| | Savings Association Insurance Fund, deposit insurance fund operated by the FDIC, established. |
| 1990 | J.P. Morgan permitted to underwrite securities. |
| 1992 | European Union’s Third Non-Life Insurance Directive became effective, establishing a single European market for insurance. |
| 1994 | Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act allowed bank holding companies to acquire banks in any state and, as of June 1, 1997, to branch across state lines. |
| 1995 | U.S. Supreme Court ruled in NationsBank vs. Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company that annuities are not a form of insurance under the National Bank Act, thus allowing national banks to sell annuities without limitation. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 enacted to reduce the number of frivolous securities fraud lawsuits filed. |
| 1996 | Barnett Bank U.S. Supreme Court decision allowed banks to sell insurance nationwide. |
| | Section 20 of Glass-Steagall amended to allow commercial bank affiliates to underwrite up to 25 percent of revenue in previously ineligible securities of corporate equity or debt. |
| 1997 | The Financial Services Agreement of the General Agreement on Trade in Services provided framework to reduce or eliminate barriers that prevent financial services from being freely provided across national borders, or that discriminate against foreign-owned firms. |
| 1998 | Citibank and Travelers merged to form Citigroup, a firm engaged in all major financial services sectors. |
| 1999 | Financial Services Modernization Act (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act) allowed banks, insurance companies and securities firms to affiliate and sell each other’s products. Restructured the Federal Home Loan Bank System. |
| 2001 | U.S. House of Representatives Banking Committee renamed itself the Financial Services Committee. |
| 2002 | Citigroup spun off its Travelers’ property/casualty insurance unit. |
| | J.P. Morgan Chase introduced an annuity, becoming one of the first banking companies to underwrite an insurance product under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act |
| | Sarbanes-Oxley Act enacted to increase the accountability of the boards of publicly held companies to their shareholders. Strengthens the oversight of corporations and their accounting firms. |
| | The President signed the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA), whereby private insurers and the federal government share the risk of future losses from terrorism for a three-year period. |
| 2003 | State regulators and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched investigations into late trading and market timing in the mutual funds and variable annuities industries. |
| 2004 | New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and a number of state regulators launched investigations into the bidding and commissions practices of insurance brokers. |
| 2005 | Congress passed legislation extending the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) to December 2007. The Act, originally passed in 2002 to provide a federal backstop for terrorism insurance losses, had been set to expire at the end of 2005. |
| 2006 | President Bush signed the Federal Deposit Insurance Reform Conforming Amendments Act of 2005, which merges the Bank Insurance Fund and the Savings Association Insurance Fund into the new Deposit Insurance Fund, and increases the deposit insurance limit for certain retirement accounts from $100,000 to $250,000, and indexes that limit to inflation. |
| | Congress passed landmark pension reform legislation to close funding shortfalls in the nation's defined benefit system. The Act also provides tax incentives for workers to enroll in individual retirment accounts, secures the legality of cash balance pension plans, and permits automatic enrollment in employer-sponsored defined contribution pension plans such as 401(k)s. |
| | Massachusetts became the first state to pass a universal health insurance law. |
| | NASD and the New York Stock Exchange formed the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a self-regulatory organization to serve as the single regulator for all securities firms doing business in the U.S. |
| 2008 | Federal regulators took control of IndyMac Bank of California, one of the nation’s largest savings and loans and the biggest U.S. lender to fail in more than two decades. |
| | The Treasury Department unveiled plans for a sweeping overhaul of the regulation of the U.S. financial services industry that would not consolidate bank regulation, provide stronger oversight of mortgage lending and introduce an optional federal charter for insurance companies. |
| | The federal government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and assumed a 80 percent ownership in American International Group, reflecting widespread turmoil in financial markets. |
| | Securities giant Lehman Brothers failed, marking the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. Two other major securities firms, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, got federal approval to convert to bank holding companies. |
| | Congress considered a Treasury proposal for a $700 billion bailout of the U.S. financial services industry. |
