Banking regulation is not new, and has evolved into what it is today over many years. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 established the Federal Reserve as the central bank of the US. There had been a financial crisis in 1907 which JP Morgan intervened to resolve. He pledged his own money to ensure people's faith in the banking industry. This event highlighted the need for a lender of last resort, someone that any bank could go to in an emergency to raise financing. Later, in the wake of the 1929 Wall Street crash, the Banking Act of 1933 established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation which provides insurance against some elements of cash held by depositors within bank accounts should the bank go bust. In the same year the Glass-Steagall Act was introduced to separate the more straightforward commercial banking activities from the more complex and risky investment banking activities. The Bank Holding Act of 1956 regulates the action of bank holding companies such as Bank of America, JP Morgan, and Citigroup. One of its main functions is that it prohibits bank holding companies from owning non-financial companies. Basel I. The Basel Committee was formed in 1974 with the aim of bringing together more harmonized banking rules globally to ensure banks have sufficient quality, capital, and remain liquid even in stressed environments. The rules put forward by the Basel Committee were not binding on banks immediately, but needed to be adopted by individual countries. Basel I focused on credit risk through risk-weighted assets, and established minimum capital requirements for the first time. Basel II introduced disclosure requirements that force banks to explain publicly what risks they face and what processes they have in place to manage those risks. Basel II extended the coverage of risks that had to be analyzed beyond credit risk to also include operational and market risk. It was based on three pillars. Minimum capital requirements, covering credit, markets and operational risk. Supervisory review, where the bank had to submit its own internal assessment of the risks it faced and how much capital the bank thought it needed to cover those risks, giving regulators more insight into how the bank was run from a risk perspective. And market discipline, which involved disclosure requirements making it easier for market participants to gauge capital adequacy. Basel III. This aims to further strengthen capital adequacy requirements, making up for the weaknesses of Basel II, which meant some of the risks faced in the 2008 financial crisis weren't adequately captured, and introduced requirements around holding sufficient short-term liquidity, and ensuring sufficient long-term stable funding.