The Panic of 1907 led to reforms that culminated in the creation of the U.S. Federal Reserve System in 1913.
The panic began after an unsuccessful attempt to corner the stock of United Copper Company triggered runs on banks and trust companies. The crisis spread because the United States lacked a central bank able to provide emergency liquidity. Financier J. P. Morgan organized private support, helping stabilize the banking system.
The episode convinced many policymakers that the financial system needed a formal lender of last resort. The Aldrich–Vreeland Act created an emergency currency system, and the National Monetary Commission studied foreign central banks. Congress eventually passed the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. The Federal Reserve did not exist during the Panic of 1907; its later creation was one of the crisis’s most important institutional consequences.