In addition, we have a tradition of multiple chartering options for full-service banks. This tradition flows from the previously described dispersion of legal and regulatory authority. Therefore, not until the Abraham Lincoln Administration in 1864 was our national banking authority created, and only after the 1929 Wall Street panic, was a national securities regulator created.
Today, although nationally chartered banks hold the majority of U.S. banking assets (55 percent), the states continue to charter most insured commercial banks (74 percent). We continue to have very active state bank chartering authorities in all fifty states. The insurance industry is the last bastion of a financial services industry without a federal regulator.