Historically, financial instability has been encouraged changes in the regulation of banking institutions. This paper deals with the first banking experiences occurred in Argentina, Brazil, Spain and Portugal and their crises in the first half of the 19th century. As issuing banks, the main obstacle that these institutions had to overcome was to guarantee the convertibility of their bank notes. In all countries the state intervened, initially and in general, granting the issuing privilege in exchange for economic favors. This had a negative impact on the first banking experiences, mostly unsuccessful. The surviving banks received support from the state to continue, but also had more restrictive regulations regarding issuance. In the analyzed cases, the banking crises produced changes in the regulation of banks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]