Indeed, as Governor George noted, nonbanks have made impressive inroads in markets that previously had been largely banks’ domain. For example, money market mutual funds and stock and bond mutual funds have lured billions of dollars that formerly had been placed in staid bank investments such as certificates of deposits. Most mutual funds now also offer some “banking” services such as checkwriting privileges.
We’ll give an opinion at a later stage and it’s really a political discussion; that’s all what I can say. Let’s move on to the potential threat of a currency war that was raised briefly at Davos last week by the US Treasury Secretary. He was talking down the dollar.