US banks innovated throughout the 20th century, helping them to circumvent regulations even in an era generally thought to have been characterised by “boring” banking, according to a blog post published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Having dispelled myths around the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in a previous post, Nicola Cetorelli goes on to examine why there was so much innovation among banks that were supposedly restrained by the act’s provisions.

He finds that banks found it