The McFadden Act is a United States federal law that reformed the U.S. banking system.^[1] The Act liberalized branch banking rules, forcing states to give the same branching rights to national banks and state banks.^[2][1] The bill, based on the recommendations made by former Comptroller of the Currency Henry May Dawes, was signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge on February 25, 1927.^[3]

It is named after Louis Thomas McFadden, member of the United States House of Representatives and Chairman of the United States House Committee on Banking and Currency.^[3]

The bill was first introduced in Congress by McFadden on February 11, 1924.^[3]

The Act sought to give national banks competitive equality with state-chartered banks by letting national banks branch to the extent permitted by state law.^[4] The McFadden Act specifically prohibited interstate branching by allowing each national bank to branch only within the state in which it is situated. Under a grandfather clause, three major banks were allowed to continue conducting interstate banking (Northwestern National Bank, First Bank Stock Corporation, and First Western Bank).

Although the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994^[5] repealed this provision of the McFadden Act, it specified that state law continues to control intrastate branching, or branching within a state's borders, for both state and national banks.

• Bank Holding Company Act of 1956

• Information from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
• Bank Geographic Structure
• Public Law 639, 69th Congress, H.R. 2: an Act to Further Amend the National Banking Laws and the Federal Reserve Act. [McFadden Act]