Their views provide an unusual survey of current thinking in the domains of banking and finance, and an important source of current information, background, and foresights for banking and finance practitioners, students, and academics.

The basic functions of banking-lending, deposit taking, and making payments-are constant. What changes are the forms banking takes in response to increases in competition, globalizaion, new laws, and emerging technologies. Among the most visible of these changes will be an increase in the consolidation and globalization of banking in the world's major trading countries. Now, prestigious academics and practitioners, including regulators from around the world, join Benton E. Gup in exploring these coming changes-and by doing so, define a global perspective on banking's future. They find that the consolidation of banking will persist on a global scale. Electronic banking in all its forms will increase in importance, and banking in mature economies will be even more different from what it is now in developing economies. While focusing on the financial system in the United States, Gup's panel of contributors also explores financial systems in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere. Like Gup, they predict that a small handful of very large banks will control a disproportionate share of bank assets. Their views provide an unusual survey of current thinking in the domains of banking and finance, and an important source of current information, background, and foresights for banking and finance practitioners, students, and academics.