The Federal Reserve Board on Sunday approved a move that will fundamentally change the last remaining investment banks in the country.

Candidates Trade Barbs Over Econ.

According to the Fed's Web site, pending a statutory five-day antitrust waiting period, the applications of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to become bank holding companies will be approved.

The change in status will allow them to create commercial banks that will be able to take deposits, bolstering the resources of both institutions.

"The move fundamentally changes one of the mainstays of modern Wall Street," the the New York Times reported. "It heralds new regulations and supervisions of previously lightly regulated investment banks. It is also the latest signal by the Federal Reserve that it will not let Goldman or Morgan fail."

The Times said the move may allow the banks to buy up banks that are still expected to fail this year, and it gives Goldman and Morgan Stanley access to the discount window of the Federal Reserve to access credit.

The change continues the biggest restructuring on Wall Street since the Great Depression.

On its Web site, the Federal Reserve said:

"To provide increased liquidity support to these firms as they transition to managing their funding within a bank holding company structure, the Federal Reserve Board authorized the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to extend credit to the U.S. broker-dealer subsidiaries of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley against all types of collateral that may be pledged at the Federal Reserve's primary credit facility for depository institutions or at the existing Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF); the Federal Reserve has also made these collateral arrangements available to the broker-dealer subsidiary of Merrill Lynch. In addition, the Board also authorized the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to extend credit to the London-based broker-dealer subsidiaries of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch against collateral that would be eligible to be pledged at the PDCF."