Throughout that period, household wealth was rising rapidly, and, directly or indirectly, households were allocating an increasing share of their wealth to vehicles that were managed or advised by professional asset managers. At the same time, advances in the technology of modeling, pricing, and trading of risk over the past several decades gave added impetus to the migration of credit to securities markets.
Competition from the securities market has significantly affected all segments of banking, but the most dramatic changes have occurred at the very largest banks. One could say that their strategic response was, "If you can't beat them, join them."