In 1933, after the stock market crash of 1929 ushered in a wave of bank failures, US legislators sought to restore faith in the financial sector by passing the Glass-Steagall Act, which forced banks to separate commercial banking activities from riskier trading and securities activities.
More than 75 years later, and a decade after Glass-Steagall was repealed, politicians, regulators and even some senior bankers were pushing for the reintroduction of similar restrictions in a bid to prevent another global financial crisis.
