Bank of United States 1930 Detail

About Bank of United States 1930 Detail

The Bank of United States failure on December 11, 1930, was a pivotal moment in the Great Depression. Despite its official sounding name, it was a private bank serving immigrant communities in New York. The bank had 400,000 depositors, mostly Jewish garment workers and small merchants. The failure occurred after rumors spread about the banks solvency. Depositors lined up for days. The bank had 200 million in deposits. The failure triggered panic that spread to other banks. It was the largest bank failure in American history at that point. The failure convinced many that the banking system was unsafe, accelerating withdrawals. The FDIC, created in 1933, was partly a response to this type of failure.