Furthermore, there are special conditions governing the extent of ownership, the nature of ownership and control, and transfers of such ownership or control through statutory backing. These are justified since the banks are admittedly special. The discussions in WTO on Commitments relating to opening of domestic banking sector to foreign banks/ownership reflects these concerns in most of the major economies.
It is worth recalling what Sir Eddie George, the Governor of Bank of England had said on the subject banks being special: “they remain special in terms of the particular functions they perform - as the repository of the economy’s immediately available liquidity, as the core payments mechanism, and as the principal source of non-market finance to a large part of the economy.