(See Gary Gorton (1988), “Banking Panics and Business Cycles,” Oxford Economic Papers, vol. 40 (December), pp. 751-81.) 8 See Walter Bagehot ([1873] 1897), Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons).
These figures are broadly comparable to those prevailing in several leading European economies (like Italy, Germany and France) which typically ranged within 4-7 per cent of total loans and lower than those in most Asian economies, although they were higher than those prevailing in countries such as, the US, Canada and Australia.