The President's Commission on Financial Structure and Regulation, also known as the Hunt Commission (and not to be confused with the Hunt Commission of 1980) was a United States Presidential Commission created by President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

between April and June 1970 that was " sponsible for recommending measures to improve operation of the nation's private financial system." Chaired by corporate executive Reed Oliver Hunt, it was appointed as a response to

disintermediation Disintermediation is the removal of intermediary, intermediaries in economics from a supply chain, or "cutting out the middlemen" in connection with a transaction or a series of transactions. Instead of going through traditional distribution cha ...

in the previous year which developed due in part to interest rate caps (

Regulation Q Regulation Q ( 12 CFRbr>217 is a Federal Reserve regulation which sets out capital requirements for banks in the United States. Updated as required. The version of Regulation Q current was enacted in 2013. From 1933 until 2011, an earlier versi ...

) on interest paid on deposits in banks and savings institutions. By limiting deposit interest, Regulation Q prevented banks from competing with rising

money market fund A money market fund (also called a money market mutual fund) is an open-end mutual fund that invests in short-term debt securities such as US Treasury bills and commercial paper. Money market funds are managed with the goal of maintaining a hig ...

s (MMF's) that were relatively unregulated and thus able to provide higher returns by investing client funds directly in unsecured

commercial paper Commercial paper, in the global financial market, is an Unsecured debt, unsecured promissory note with a fixed Maturity (finance), maturity of usually less than 270 days. In layperson terms, it is like an "IOU" but can be bought and sold becaus ...

and repurchase agreements. On December 22, 1971, the Commission's ''Report of the President's Commission on Financial Structure and'' ''Regulation'' was released, the Commission "laid out an agenda for

reform Reform refers to the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The modern usage of the word emerged in the late 18th century and is believed to have originated from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement, which ...

and deregulation" which influenced legislative proposals by Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter, the latter of whom presided over the substantial realization of the Commission's recommendations in 1980 with the

Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act The Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 (, ) (often abbreviated DIDMCA or MCA) is a United States federal financial statute passed in 1980 and signed by President Jimmy Carter on March 31. Purposes DIDMCA gave ...

, which "removed most distinctions between

commercial banks A commercial bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit (finance), deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make a Profit (economics), profit. It can also refer to a bank or a division o ...

and thrifts, allowed NOW accounts nationwide, and initiated a phased end to interest rate ceilings."Woolley, John T. "Persistent Leadership: Presidents and the Evolution of U.S. Financial Reform, 1970-2007." Presidential Studies Quarterly. 42.1 (2012): 60-80. Print. The Commission heralded the general trend toward

deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...

that predominated

economic policy ''Economic Policy'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Oxford University Press, Oxford Academic on behalf of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, the Center for Economic Studies (University of Munich), and the Paris Scho ...

for nearly four decades between 1970 and 2008, when the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

revealed the weaknesses of the financial system. Regulation was visibly embraced with the passage of the

Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, commonly referred to as Dodd–Frank, is a United States federal law that was enacted on July 21, 2010. The law overhauled financial regulation in the aftermath of the Great Reces ...

in 2010.

References

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See also

References

Further reading