Asia supplants Europe as global banking landscape shifts post-financial crash
The total assets held by Asian banks have grown nearly six-fold since the financial crisis, as Europe increasingly diminishes in the global banking landscape.
The rise of Asian banks, particularly those in Japan and Chins, is underpinned by an overall asset expansion from $4 trillion (£3.1 trillion) to $23 trillion, analysis by law firm Linklaters showed.
Michael Kent, global head of finance and projects at Linklaters, said: “Ten years on from the administration of Lehmans, the global banking industry is unrecognisable. Banks across the world have seen an unprecedented wave of regulation hit them and some markets have fared better than others.”
As Asia’s banks have flourished, Europe’s have shrunk: over the decade from the beginning of the crash in 2007 until last year, European bank assets reduced by 52 per cent, to $13.3 trillion.
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Linklaters pinned the change in part on changes to regulation, which have resulted in banks in Europe being forced to hold a greater amount of their assets as a capital buffer, up from 3.4 per cent in 2008 to 5.5 per cent last year.
“The regulatory response around the world was significant,” said Kent. “In Europe more so than elsewhere, regulators moved from a light touch model to a far more rigorous system, clamping down on risky banking practices and strengthening banking standards.”