After the global financial crisis, the size of the banking sector has become a hotly debated topic. To measure the size of the banking system a country's banking assets divided by the country's gross domestic product (GDP) is commonly applied as a general yardstick. This paper shows that this...

To measure the size of the banking system, a country's banking assets divided by the country's gross domestic product (GDP) is commonly applied as a yardstick. But is the banking assets to GDP ratio an appropriate yardstick? This paper shows that comparing a country's banking sector only by...