ABSTRACT
The ultimate purpose of the framework for financial structure and regulation is to assist financial institutions and markets in performing their economic functions. The focus in the 1980s on "competitive equity," "convenience," and raising returns to the "consumer" of financial services tended to undervalue or overlook the role that financial intermediation plays in an industrial society. Competitiveness, convenience, returns, and even protection are irrelevant if the financial system fails to function as a dynamic catalyst in sustaining economic activity. Unless the borrowers to whom savings and investment funds are channeled prosper, returns fall and intermediaries fail.
