This was the height of the crisis. Since then, the financial and banking system have been stabilised and we are on the road to recovery. But this has come at a high cost: many government budgets have been stretched due to massive amounts of official sector support. There was a fundamental spillover from the financial crisis to the real economy.
This resulted in lost wealth and a loss of jobs. It is not yet over and risks remain. While painful and costly, the crisis has nonetheless presented an opportunity to put in place longer term reforms that are needed to make banks and the financial system more resilient to future periods of stress.