As the general consensus is that recovery is now under way, however fragile that may be, this article seeks to provide an historical perspective on how banking has evolved to where it is today, looking at the trends, the new world order that is emerging and where banking is likely to be in 2020 and on to 2030.
As the tables show, the past 40 years have witnessed enormous change in the banking sector and in financial institutions across the globe. Looking at The Banker's Top 1000 World Banks listings over this period provides an extraordinary view of not only the financial behemoths of the day but also the economies that produced them. If ever there was any doubt as to the direct correlation between the strength of a country's economy and of its banking system, the Top 1000 listings demonstrate admirably both the rise and fall of individual institutions and their core interrelationships with the economies from which they emerge.
