Banking was once stable and solid. Trust was always associated with banking until the savings and loan debacle in the mid 1980s. Since then, banks have merged, downsized, and restructured.
Banks had to reinvent themselves just as manufacturers did ten years before. Banks became more efficient, reduced redundancies, employed new technologies, and anticipated the changing needs of customers. Megabanks now compete with each other all over the world. Branches are closing as ATMs and electronic banking replace tellers.