Before the havoc created by last year's global financial crisis, it was more or less unquestioned that for a country to have a financial centre with the global standing of the City of London or Wall Street was devoutly to be desired.
Not only did the financial services industry provide a lot of well-paid jobs for a society but it was taken as the mark of the most advanced industrial economies to be able to attract investment banks and hedge funds.
There turned out to be a significant downside to having a global financial centre. The more large banks and global institutions any country hosted, the bigger the headache it faced in clearing up the mess, and the bill.