Federal Reserve Act

By the early twentieth century, some Progressive reformers advocated that the federal government do more to manage the American economy. Throughout the nineteenth century and into the early 1900s, there had been a number of economic panics, recessions, and depressions. In an attempt to moderate these economic swings and to decrease the power of large individual banks, the United States Government passed the Federal Reserve Act in 1913.

The Federal Reserve Act established twelve district banks. The fourth district, which included Ohio, was headquartered in Cleveland. The law also created a Federal Reserve Board, whose members were appointed by the president and had the power to manage the amount of money in circulation in the United States. The new banking system was certainly an improvement over what had existed before, but it did not solve all of the nation's banking problems or keep future depressions from occurring.

The state legislature had to modify Ohio's banking laws after the Federal Reserve Act was passed, in order to ensure that the state's laws were compatible with the new national banking system.