Pronunciation: [stˈiːɡɔːl] (IPA) 
The word "Steagall" is pronounced /stiːɡɔːl/ and is spelled with eight letters. The "s" is pronounced as "s", the "t" as "t", the "e" as "i:", the "a" as "ɔː", the first "g" as "ɡ" and the second "g" as "ɔː", and the final "l" as "l". This word is commonly used to refer to the Glass–Steagall Act, a law that separated commercial and investment banking in the United States from 1933 to 1999.
Steagall refers to the commonly used abbreviation for the Banking Act of 1933, officially known as the Glass-Steagall Act. The Glass-Steagall Act was a significant piece of legislation in the United States that sought to regulate the banking industry and prevent another financial crisis. The Act was named after its sponsors, Senator Carter Glass and Representative Henry Steagall.
The essence of the Act was to establish a clear separation between commercial banking activities, which involve providing basic financial services to individuals and businesses, and investment banking activities, which involve underwriting securities and engaging in more speculative financial transactions. The Act aimed to prevent conflicts of interest that could arise from banks engaging in both types of activities simultaneously.
Under the Glass-Steagall Act, commercial banks were prohibited from engaging in investment banking activities, such as trading stocks or bonds. Likewise, investment banks were not allowed to accept deposits or offer the same basic financial services provided by commercial banks. The Act also established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which provided insurance for bank deposits to protect individual depositors in the event of bank failures.
The Glass-Steagall Act remained in effect for several decades until it was repealed in 1999 through the passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which relaxed the regulations and allowed for the merging of commercial and investment banking activities. The repeal of the Act has been a subject of debate, with some believing that it played a role in the 2008 financial crisis.
