Banking regulation

Factual Questions
1

Was there a federal regulation in effect until the 1980s or so that required federally chartered banks to be locally owned? I seem to remember that at some point in my childhood, the local banks all of a sudden began to be bought up by national conglomerates.

Actually, I am also trying to compile a list of the major banks that were in existence in the Dayton, Ohio, area in the 1970s and 1980s and what eventually happened to them. I’ve come up with a few. Does anyone have a good source for getting at such info, such as some old telephone books or something? This is what I’ve got so far –

– Winters National Bank and Trust Co. (founded?) --> merged into Bank One (date?)

– Gem Savings and Loan --> Gem City Savings --> merged into National City (date?)

– Star Bank --> Firstar --> merged into US Bank (date?)

Thanks!

2

Call your library to see if they have old phone books or city directories.

I also recall a lot of local banks, and a change where they began to be taken over.

3

This has primarily been a matter of state regulation. Many states placed severe restrictions on “branch banking” until the 1970’s (or later), limiting banks to one or a few physical facilities. In fact, I remember here in Illinois that when the first ATM machines were introduced, banks were careful to seek assurance that each machine wouldn’t be counted as a separate “facility”. This tended to lead to local ownership as each town had separate banks. These restrictions gradually fell away in the 1980’s, first within states and then across state lines as states negotiated reciprocity agreements (“your banks can buy our banks if ours can buy yours”).