Are the world’s banks back to normal?

If “normal” means the under-regulated and over-leveraged state that they were in before the crisis, then that is the last thing we need the world’s banks to return to. Thankfully, however, that does not seem to be happening. Rather, the banks are generally in a good position to increase lending and support economic growth in the coming years – albeit with significant weak spots, including Italy and China. This Focus is an expanded version of a presentation given at the Capital Economics Annual Conference, “Ten years after the financial crisis: Is the global economy finally back to health?” held in London, Amsterdam, Stockholm and Zurich in October 2017.