GLASS-STEAGALL ACT

Act prohibiting commercial banks from engaging in the investment business. Passed by the US Congress in 1933, former Treasury secretary and Senator Carter Glass, and Senator Henry Steagall sponsored the Banking Act of 1933. This was enacted as an emergency measure to reduce or eliminate the failure of nearly 5,000 banks during the Great Depression. The Act lost its potency in the following decades and was repealed in 1999.