Thus, from the start of our republic individual states insisted on being able to charter their own banks, and were suspicious of the federal government’s efforts to do so. It was not until the trauma of the Civil War that Congress passed a National Bank Act that allowed for extensive federal chartering and supervision of banks.
Even after passage of the National Bank Act, virtually all banks were severely restricted in their ability to operate across state lines. Indeed, until passage of the McFadden Act in 1927 national banks could only have one office.