"The last 35 years have been dramatic for the financial services industry. In the 1990s and 2000s, boundaries between the traditional industry sectors, such as commercial banking and investment banking, broke down, and competition became increasingly global in nature. Many forces contributed to this breakdown in interindustry and intercountry barriers, including financial innovation, technology, taxation, and regulation. Then in 2008-09, the financial services industry experienced the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Even into the mid-2010s, the U.S. and world economies had not recovered from this crisis. It is in this context that this book is written. Although the traditional nature of each sector's product activity is analyzed, a greater emphasis is placed on new areas of activities such as asset securitization, off-balance-sheet banking, international banking, and on changes occurring as a result of the financial crisis.