Few issues are more important in setting the agenda for economic growth than the structure, conduct and performance of a nation's financial system. Standing at the centre of the transactions and resource allocation process, high performance financial systems are increasingly important as determinants of sustainable economic progress and stability. This is as true domestically as it is internationally. National financial systems require an efficient “window” on global sources and uses of capital, as well as market developments and financial technologies that change in substance and form at a rapid pace. Few countries can afford to be isolated from these developments—especially as they develop mature industrial structures and rapidly evolving services sectors—or fail to create and maintain domestic financial systems that can eventually meet world performance standards.

This study outlines the framework of high performance financial systems and the parameters for financial firms operating in them. We begin with an intuitive structural model of financial intermediation, and discuss the various stages of its evolution in terms of static and dynamic efficiency characteristics. We then consider issues facing players in, and users of, the financial system. We emphasize strategic positioning alternatives facing banks and other types of financial institutions, and the principal determinants of their competitive performance. This includes the critical role of regulation as a major factor affecting the performance of the financial system itself, both in the context of national economic growth and competitiveness, and as a factor in defining the future of various types of financial firms.

The study also deals with a critical and controversial dimension in the design of the financial system, that is the relationship between the structure of financial institutions, and the linkages to ownership and the control process in industry. How countries deal with this issue can have dramatic effects on both the financial system and the fundamentals of industrial performance.