The Panic of 1907 exposed the country's lack of a lender of last resort and prompted years of study by the Aldrich–Vreeland commission. Signed by Woodrow Wilson on December 23, 1913, the Federal Reserve Act created twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks coordinated by a Washington Board of Governors, gave the System discount-window authority, and empowered it to issue Federal Reserve Notes as legal tender. The Act ended a century of debate — dating back to the First and Second Banks of the United States — over whether the country should have a central bank. The Fed's structure has been amended repeatedly (Banking Act of 1935, Humphrey–Hawkins Act, Dodd–Frank) but the 1913 architecture remains intact.