The Failure of the Franklin National Bank: Challenge to the International Banking System

This study examines the failure of the Franklin National Bank and the international banking crisis of 1974-1975. It discusses the changes in banking regulation and practice which contributed to Franklin's problems and explores how regulators in the U.S. and abroad coped with the threat to the safety and soundness of the international banking system. The study explains how the failure of the Franklin National Bank and the Herstatt Bank forced bank regulators and policy makers to address the new international nature of banking and to work together to address the dramatic changes in international financial markets. Such international cooperation to manage bank crises and to set common standards will help to prevent financial crises in the future. The book also addresses an interesting undercurrent in the Franklin Bank: the involvement of the mysterious Italian financier Michele Sindona.