Free banking

Free banking is a theory of banking in which commercial banks and market forces control the provision of banking services. Under free banking, government central banks and currency boards do not exist, and banking-specific government regulations are either non-existent or not as strict. Banking services may include bank note issue, cheque accounts, deposit acceptance, and/or money lending.

Contents 1 Institutions of Free Banking 2 Characteristics of Free Banking 3 History of Free Banking 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Institutions of Free Banking

Free banking institutionally is:

1. Freedom to form banks
2. Freedom to issue banknotes (promissory notes issued by a bank payable to bearer on demand)
3. Freedom to accept money on deposit to current account, and to pay and collect cheques for customers
4. Freedom to borrow money on term deposit and other forms of secured and unsecured borrowing
5. Freedom to lend money and otherwise invest the bank's assets
6. Freedom to provide guarantees, documentary letters of credit, performance bonds and to incur other off balance sheet exposures.

Characteristics of Free Banking

Free banking theorists consider that free banking is characterised by:

1. Competitive issue of redeemable bearer money. Historically this meant banknotes (promissory notes issued by a bank payable to bearer on demand) issued in the form of paper or metal tokens, but cryptography and modern communications technology mean that it can now take the form of electronic tokens, too.
2. Mutual acceptance by banks of each other's notes at par^{[citation needed]}, and indirect redemption of notes by banks through note exchanges.
3. In the same way competitive provision of current account services, but cooperation, too, in clearing of inter-bank payments between such accounts through clearing houses and settlement banks.
4. Development of short term credit markets to allow banks with excess reserves to invest them at interest, and banks in need of reserves to borrow funds short term.
5. Development of, and bank investment in, marketable debt securities, providing investment opportunities that can be liquidated at short notice, and acting as collateral for short term inter-bank borrowing and lending.

History of Free Banking

Banking has been more regulated in some times and places than others, and some times and places it has hardly been regulated at all, giving some experiences of more or less free banking.

1. Australia. In the late 19th Century, banking in Australia was subject to little regulation. There were four large banks with over 100 branches each, that together had about half of the banking business, and branch banking and deposit banking were much more advanced than other more regulated countries such as the UK and USA. Banks accepted each other's notes at par. Interest margins were about 4% p.a. In the 1890s a land price crash caused the failure of many smaller banks and building societies. Bankruptcy legislation put in place at the time gave bank debtors generous terms they could restructure under, and most of the banks used this as a means to restructure their debts in their favor, even though they didn't really need to. The results was a spate of bank 'failures' that provides another addition to an unfavorable record for government intervention.
2. Switzerland. In the 19th Century several Swiss cantons deregulated banking, allowing free entry and issue of notes. Cantons retained jurisdiction over banking until the enactment of the Federal Banking Law of 1881. The centralisation of note issue reduced the problem of the existence of "a bewildering variety of notes of varying qualities ... at fluctuating exchange rates."^[1]
3. Scottish Free Banking. This period lasted between 1716 and 1845. The Bank of Scotland, the original Scottish bank charter and The Royal Bank of Scotland, chartered by England, issued competitive currencies. This resulted in a "currency war" in 1727. The result was a cooperative equilibrium, where both banks agreed to redeem. This area of study has been developed further by Lawrence H. White, in books such as Free Banking in Britain: Theory, Experience and Debate 1800-1845.
4. United States. Between 1837 and 1862, known as the Free Banking Era, only state-chartered banks existed. They could issue bank notes against specie (gold and silver coins) and the states regulated their reserve requirements, interest rates for loans and deposits, the necessary capital ratio. The banking system during this period was notoriously unstable, with many bank failures, and bank notes were discounted depending on the perceived creditworthiness of the issuing bank, that is, there was no single, broadly accepted currency or unit of account^{[citation needed]}. Then, from 1863 to 1913, known as the National Banks Era, state-chartered banks were still operating under a free banking system. Some scholars have found that the system was mostly stable ^[2].
5. Sweden. Sweden had two periods of free banking, 1830-60 and 1860-1902. Following a bank crisis in 1857, there was a rise in popular support for private banks and private money issuers (especially Stockholms Enskilda Bank, founded in 1856). A new bank law was adopted by parliament in 1864, deregulating the interest rate. The following decades marked the height of the Swedish free banking era. After 1874, no new private banks were founded. In 1901, issuing of private money was prohibited. Work on the Swedish free banking era has been done by Per Hortlund and Erik Lakomaa.

There is speculation that with electronic currencies free banking can evolve into Anonymous internet banking. The implications of this for the monetary system are unknown, and much of the rigorous theory in this area has been abandoned for a "wait and see" attitude