The growth of banking and financial institutions

Abstract

The development of banking and financial institutions generally throughout the western world can best be understood by regarding banks essentially as an industry providing services to the community in which it is established and of which it forms a part. Banking services are strongly influenced by the whole economic environment in which the banks operate. Changes therein—whether these are cyclical fluctuations in the economy or structural changes—create the need for the banks to adapt themselves to the new situation. In this paper I wish to confine myself to structural changes only. These I propose to examine as a reflection of broad economic changes.