Indeed, for every activity conducted by banks – with the exception of taking government-insured deposits – a nonbank financial institution likely conducts a similar activity. In many cases, nonbanks engage in maturity and liquidity transformation and are levered, so they have vulnerabilities similar to those of banks, but lack the benefit of access to a lender of last resort.
Spread of banking The banking system's wide reach, judged in terms of expansion of branches and the growth of credit and deposits indicates continued financial deepening (Table 1). The population per bank branch has not changed much since the 1980s, and has remained at around 16,000.