After living through the stock market crises of 1987 and 2001–2, many people wonder just how safe the financial system is, and what kinds of financial instruments they should trust their savings to. This book explores the future of the financial services industry, giving readers an idea of the kinds of institutions and services that will survive in the early twenty–first century. The book focuses on the changes that we will face in the near future, such as greater use of the Internet for banking transactions and the increasing globalization of financial services. It considers changing conditions in key financial centres around the world, especially in the US, the UK, Germany, Japan and Switzerland; and it points to the probable disappearance of the insurance sector as a separate industry. The book describes the strategies of major financial services firms, and discusses the likelihood that various strategies will be viable in the future. The author's informative and, at times, provocative assertions will be of interest to anyone who wants to understand how the financial services sector is developing.