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Over the ages of banks, there were many attempts to build the best bank possible  for the country. The United States tried many different types of banks, including many that eventually failed. Some banks had many problems, especially in the Free Banking Era. Although, as time progressed, in the end banks became more of a success as they became more trustworthy.

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After banks became successes, they decided to grow physically. This means that they expanded their branches to more areas of the United States and they engaged in bank merging. Bank merging is when two completely different banks decide to become one bigger bank, making one branch bigger and strengthening resources.

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AS time progressed, banks changed and reshaped the society today. These major changes resulted in the term modernization. The more changes and styles banks underwent, they became more modern (more like banks today). These could have been easy changes, for example the layout of a bank; to more extreme changes like the type of currency.

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- The First Bank of the United States
- The Second Bank of the United States
- Free Banking Era
- National Banking Acts of 1863 & 1864
- The Gold Standard
- Savings and Loan Crisis
- Bank Mergers

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The First bank of America looked something very similar to this. This bank was used to hold tax money, to help the government carry out taxes, and borrowing money in interest. This bank succeeded in bringing order and stability to American Banking.

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The second bank of America was very similar to the First bank. It had many different uses, primarily to help en the financial crisis. This bank opened in 1816, and renewed the public's confidence in the National Banking systems.

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Deregulation, high-interest rates, bad loans, and fraud were the causes of the Savings and Loan Crisis. Deregulation contributed because S&Ls were protected by the government and were unprepared for competition. High-Interest Rates contributed because the interest rates skyrocketed in the 1980's and that meant that S&Ls had to pay out high-interest rates to their depositors and in return, they were receiving low-interest rates from the money loaned out in the 1970's. Bad loans contributed because of risky loans made in the early 1980's which lead to forcing many out of business. Fraud contributed when institutions fraudulently made large loans to businesses that had only a little chance of succeeding, and when those businesses failed, a tremendous drain was put on the federal agency that insured S&Ls

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Developed in the 1870's, this system allowed for certain coins and money to be equivalent to different amounts of gold. They used this system to help solve financial problems. It set a definite value for the dollar bills, and it stopped the government from printing extreme amounts of bank notes. The Gold Standard restored citizens’ faith in paper bills and coins and therefore helped to establish a consistent and trusted economy

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Two banks merge their assets in order to become one single bank
- Examples of major bank mergers (in the 1990's) include Citigroup, BankAmerica, Chase Manhattan, and Banc One
- For example, Citigroup began as the banks Travelers and Salomon Bros., which then became the bank's Travelers and Citicorp, which then became Citigroup alone
- As big bank mergers grow in many different areas, the smaller banks around them get large amounts of business. This because some people prefer small banks to bank mergers, meaning that business will get better for small banks as bank mergers take hold of locations near them

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During this time the number state-chartered banks nearly tripled. This created many problems to arise.
-Bank runs and Panics: some banks did not have enough silver and gold, making it difficult for people to exchange paper money for gold/silver.
-Wildcat banks: These banks were located in very remote areas, where people had difficulty getting to. These banks had a high rate of failure.
-Fraud: Many banks engaged in fraud, where they would make people buy bank notes and then they would take the gold/silver and disappear.
-Different Currencies: Many banks issued different currencies (sometimes being counterfeit) making certain notes worth different amounts in different states

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These acts were implemented in order to restore confidence in the paper currency. These acts gave the federal government three important powers:
1 The power to charter banks
2 The power to require banks to hold an adequate amount of gold and silver to cover their banknotes
3 The power to issue a single national currency