Old banking models might well stage a comeback

THE cracks in the banking system have once again been ripped open. Twice in the past decade, banks all over the world have slid considerably on all parameters. The 2008 crisis brought down many banks, nationalised many others, changed the metrics for their measurement and ushered in new adequacy and stress norms. This regime is not even 10 years old - a small period in industrial cycles - and we are already in the middle of the next tsunami, and not only because of Brexit.

The Chinese banks are not the only ones to show severe stress. Global banks such as Citi, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Deutsche Bank have had more bad news in recent weeks th…