The Banking Act, or more specifically the part of it known as the Glass-Steagall Act, legally separated commercial banking from investment banking in the United States of America in 1933. The law ensured solid regulation of banks with the aim of ensuring the long-term stability of the banking system, in which existing banks would be divided into commercial banks and investment banks. This legal division of commercial and investment activities was not followed by other countries, who retained their universal banking systems and their ability to simultaneously practice commercial and investment banking activities. Firm regulation ensured commercial banks the status of the most significant financial intermediaries in the US. However, in the late 20th century, with the development of capital markets and the growth of competition, this firm regulation made depository institutions uncompetitive towards other non-bank financial institutions, and depository institutions initiated the process of deregulation and the abolishment of numerous regulatory limitations. The Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 repealed the already-eroded restrictive regulations of the Glass-Steagall Act, which enabled the application of universal banking through financial holding companies, similar to universal banks in Europe. Inadequate and weak regulation contributed to the creation of the current financial crisis in the US, which spread to Europe and the rest of the world and became global in scale. The most recent regulatory reforms in the US and Europe are aimed at limiting the simultaneous practice of commercial and investment banking activities in order to once again ensure the long-term stability of the banking and financial systems.