A critique on the theory of financial intermediation

Abstract

This comment discusses the review by Franklin Allen and Anthony Santomero of the theory of financial intermediation in the 20th anniversary special issue of the Journal of Banking and Finance. We do not fully agree with their view that risk management is only of recent importance to the financial industry and with putting central the concept of participation costs. We suggest how the theory of financial intermediation might be developed further in order to understand present-day phenomena in the financial services sector. © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V.