Andrew Jackson was against the idea of giving special favors to special interest groups. He strongly opposed the Second Bank of the United States. The Bank was a federal institution that worked somewhat like a central bank. (It was very similar to the Federal Reserve System that would be developed later.) The bank was controlled by the banker Nicholas Biddle and supported by Henry Clay. Jackson did not like any banks, and he did not believe in paper money. (He believed that money should only be gold and silver.) As president, he was able to close the Second Bank.