I will limit the remainder of my speech to a few of the main points of the argument and will also point out some early lessons to be learnt from the crisis. What is so special about the business of banking?
I will start with a standard definition of a “bank”, recalling the main functions that banks are supposed to perform and explaining why these functions are so important and special that they warrant relatively close public intervention and oversight. A bank is “an institution whose current operations consist in granting loans and receiving deposits from the public”.