Bank holiday was the period in 1933 during which President Franklin D. Roosevelt closed all banks in the United States. The President declared a bank holiday on March 6, 1933, to help stop the money panic in the nation. Depositors had been withdrawing their funds with such speed that many banks ran out of money to pay over the counter. Many of these banks had collapsed or closed.
On March 9, 1933, Congress passed the Banking Act of 1933. This act allowed banks that had enough money to reopen to do so and ordered reorganization of others. It helped restore public confidence in banks (see Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ). In Britain, bank holiday means the same as legal holiday in the United States.
