Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

The Impact Of Reserve Requirements On Free Bank Failures, Andrew J. Economopoulos

Business and Economics Faculty Publications

The Free Banking Era, noted for numerous bank failures and large creditor losses, has been traditionally viewed as the experiment in laissez-faire banking that failed. Current researchers have found evidence suggesting that bank failures and creditor losses were limited to selected states and have linked the cause of bank failures to periods of falling asset prices. Free banks were required to hold long-term assets as primary reserves for short-term liabilities. Current banking theory suggests that the maturity imbalance between assets and liabilities increases the free bank's exposure to interest rate risk. Some states imposed a secondary reserve, the specie reserve …