Globalization and convergence of banking systems

Andrew W. Mullineux and Victor Murinde 1 INTRODUCTION The single global banking space is almost a reality. Nine years ago, analysts named 17 banks that they believed were global banks of the future. All were commercial or universal banks. In a 1998 survey, about the only similarity is the number: analysts still envisage 17 banks as ‘global’, or with ‘global potential’, but they describe a very different grouping. Given the changes in banking topography, today’s analysts include more investment than commercial banks in the top ranks (see Kahn, 1998). Just as striking, the first two tiers in 1998 are the exclusive realms of US banks. Today’s candidates as global banks of the new millennium include Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Citibank, Chase Manhattan and Deutsche Bank. During 1999, four banks stood head and shoulders above the rest as global banks: the best global wholesale bank was Chase Manhattan; the best global transaction services bank, and the best global consumer bank was Citigroup; the best global asset management bank was Merrill Lynch; and the best global private bank was Crédit Suisse Private Banking. These banks, no longer content to rule the domestic roost, are joined by an unprecedented number of financial institutions stepping outside their countries’ borders to attain true global reach. It seems global reach, perhaps by making overseas acquisitions, is the clearest strategy for independent survival. Alongside the expansion of conventional banks, the last two decades have seen the birth and growth….