As a final introductory thought, I want to note that my remarks today on banking crises relate to research conducted on a range of countries, many of them emerging-market countries, and are not a commentary on current financial conditions or on the health of the U.S. banking system, which, as I noted above, is quite good.
Framework for assessing and analyzing banking crises Financial crises can assume various forms. I am going to focus primarily on financial crises involving the banking sector and do so for several reasons. First, banks play a prominent role in the credit intermediation process in most countries, providing funding to firms beyond the cash flow provided by their normal operations.