Even with all that has been achieved since the financial crisis began, we are still only part of the way through building a reformed financial services industry that will support a return to growth and prosperity. Confidence has been restored by the unprecedented intervention of governments. The task now is to ensure it takes hold and grows. A modern economy cannot function without a stable banking system.

But there can be no return to past practices and past excesses. Transformations are still required in regulation, business models and culture – all the while protecting economic recovery from any significant withdrawal of the responsible lending and the availability of credit upon which households and businesses rely.

As the crisis unfolded a year ago, a regulatory gap was revealed as a result of the interconnected global markets that had developed over two decades. While banks were international and capital flows crossed national borders, oversight was largely domestic. It also became clear that lending to the real economy was underpinned by a huge and opaque trading network involving complex products, which few understood and where risks went undetected. The problems were compounded by a culture where excessive short-term risk taking was rewarded and consumers were encouraged to borrow more than they could afford – particularly in the US, but in other countries too.