Why write (or read) another book about models of banking? It
sometimes seems that banking is passé — that the real financial
action lies elsewhere. A recent survey (R. Greenwood and D.
Scharfstein, “The Growth of Finance,” J. of Econ. Perspectives,
2013) documents the explosive growth in non-bank financial
products and services. Securities markets more than quadrupled
in size, from 0.4 to 1.7 percent of GDP between 1980 and 2007,
on the eve of the crisis. Surely this is where we should focus —
the busy secondary markets for bonds, equities, securitized
products, and over-the-counter derivatives.
Yet, reports of the demise of traditional banking have been
greatly exaggerated. Credit intermediation, which includes traditional
deposit-taking and lending alongside banks’ transactional
services such as credit-card accounts and ATM activity,
have also grown. Starting from a much larger share, Greenwood
and Scharfstein (2013) calculate that credit intermediation grew
from 2.6 to 3.4 percent of GDP over the 1980–2007 period.
When the dust has settled on a quarter century of remarkable
growth, banking is still roughly twice the size of securities
markets.