Regardless of the extent and the nature of conglomeration, technological development, and new financial instruments, good fundamental business practices will remain essential: credit underwriting and risk management skills, cost control, and appropriate pricing practices. While technological improvements are an aid in nearly all these areas, only sound management practices will allow industry participants to take advantage of any advances in technology.
Clearly, the countries that will run the deficits will be those where consumers, businesses  3  For a fuller account of these developments, see Orsmond (2005) and IMF (2005). 2/10  and governments are most willing to spend and whose financial systems are most efficient at intermediating the flow of world savings.