Credit and credibilityIn pursuit of a new source of profit, many of the entities that call

Credit and credibility

In pursuit of a new source of profit, many of the entities that call themselves banks have strayed far from the business of taking and safeguarding the public's deposits and running the payment system. Competition has forced banks to range so far, in so many directions and at such a lick that, perhaps for the first time since the days of Shylock, it is necessary to stop to ask quite what is a bank.

The gales of change will leave many banks looking different in form. and substance from a decade ago. Banking is traditionally thought of as one business, not least of all by bankers. Yet, as Mr. Thomas Steiner of Mckinsey, a management consultancy, points out, it comprises around 150 different lines of business. There is little that is special about many of them. In future, plenty of these activities will be done by others, either instead of or as well as by banks. On the other side of the coin, many of the things that other financial institutions now do will be- come the business of some banks. Banking will still be a principality in the kingdom of financial services, but its heartland will shrink. Outsiders will move in. Much of the native population will settle elsewhere. The bankers' diaspora will be wide.

Crossing the divides

This change is already seen in America, Europe and Japan. American and Japanese commercial banks are pushing their merchant banking as deeply into the securities business as they feel the regulators will let them get away with. Citicorp and J. P. Morgan have all been al- lowed to set up securities - underwriting affiliates slipping through the Section 20 loophole of the legislation separating commercial and investment banking. The two businesses have become so interwoven that, as Mr. Dennis Weatherstone, president of J. P. Morgan, says, we really have to rip the fabric to separate the threads.

For their part, investment banks and securities houses have become direct suppliers of credit to wide range of financial and non - financial customers. They offer investment products that are virtual substitutes for interest - earning demand deposits. They own and operate non - bank banks that give access to payment systems. In short, they have become providers of services that commercial banks have traditionally offered. Though forbidden from commercial banking in their home market, American and Japanese investment banks and securities houses happily run such banking affiliates abroad.

It is not only the boundaries between the banking and securities industries that are becoming blurred. So are those with insurance and commerce. Bankers are becoming everyday occurrences. Japan's Nippon Life joined the act in February by taking a 4% stake in Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya for 250m. At home, Japanese insurers already have affiliations with banks, through the web of cross - shareholdings of the big industrial groups. America's third biggest re- tail stock broking firm, Pru - Bache, has dipped in the waters of banking by buying a small bank in Georgia and more recently a thrift. Everywhere ordinary commercial firms are making deep insurance into financial services. Retailers and manufacturers own securities companies, insurance firms' thrifts and non - bank banks. They offer a wide range of credit, investment - banking and insurance services, to companies and individuals alike.

What does the pronoun "themselves" (line 2) refer to in the text？

A．sources

B．entities

C．hanks

D．companies