When central bankers and economists gather today for their annual convention in Jackson Hole, there will be plenty of solemn debate about the state of the world’s banks.
After all, seven summers ago the world slid into financial crisis. And that sparked a wave of reform to reshape the way finance works, not just in the regulated banking world but also in the sphere of shadow banking (the non-bank entities that were widely ignored before that crisis erupted in 2007).
But as policy makers and economists ponder where the industry is headed, a certain irony hangs in the air. Since 2007 financial reform has been so frenetic it is widely assumed that it is regulatory issues that will reshape the industry. This may be only half true.