A US law passed in 1933 prohibiting banks from acting both as lenders and as investors in companies. This act forbids universal banking in the US, whereas such banking is common in other countries including Germany. The act was passed owing to a belief that universal banking made banks excessively risky, and had contributed to the collapse of the US banking system during the Great Depression. Partial repeal of the act in 1999 was later blamed for the financial crisis of 2008.