•  The combination of regulatory and private sector responses around the world seems likely to result in reduced financial risk-taking in the foreseeable future. Regulators are taking much-needed action to ensure that risks are better managed, and the appetite for financial risk in the household and business sectors now is clearly much less than it was.
•  In Australia the banking sector did expand relative to the economy, but it remains significantly smaller than many others. On the rough metric of banking assets to GDP, Australia’s ratio is about 2, which is well within the international range and well below those in the euro area, the UK and Japan.