These results are perhaps surprising given that two of the past five years were ones with very tight credit conditions by historical standards, and anecdotal evidence suggests that many lines of credit, for businesses and for households, were cut during the recent financial crisis. Furthermore, small business lending is an important part of overall bank lending, especially at community banks.
The G-201, the Financial Stability Board and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision have made significant strides in future-proofing the resilience of the global financial system and finalising the core elements of the regulatory reforms. The first phase of this new global regulatory initiative focused on ending the ‘too big to fail’ problem in order to reduce the risk to the fiscus and taxpayers.