It is stated that the cost of financial intermediation in the US, which perhaps has the most advanced financial system, as measured by the sum of all profits and wages paid to the financial intermediaries, has grown from 5% of GDP in 1980 to 9% in 20102.
Similarly, financing cost as represented by the value added share as a proportion of the total output of the financial sector has increased from about 1.4% to 2.3% during the same period. The explosive growth in the risky products – another name for derivatives and structures securities – has led to similar concerns.