US banks, overall, have the highest reserve ratio in recent history. US banks currently have a reserve ratio of nearly 100% or apx 1x leverage (see https://see

US banks, overall, have the highest reserve ratio in recent history. US banks currently have a reserve ratio of nearly 100% or apx 1x leverage (see https://seekingalpha.com/article/2484795-u-s-banks-are-now-operating-with-100-percent-reserves-is-full-reserve-banking-the-next-step https://seekingalpha.com/article/2484795-u-s-banks-are-now-o... for more details). IIRC, the reserve requirement for large banks is 10% and historically, as cascom alludes, this is about where most US banks were at (i.e. about 5x to 10x leveraged) historically. But the that has not been the case for almost a decade now. So US banks have plenty of capital assets to offset loan losses. The "shadow banking" services that are rising are coming about because normal banks are unwilling to take on even moderately risky lending. Their demands for loans are now extremely stringent, especially for smaller and middle-tier business customers. This demand is thus being filled by different, non-traditional, sources, i.e. "shadow banking". The situation in overseas, especially Europe, is very very different. Many large European banks are currently operating with reserve ratios of only a few %. I don't know if this means there is less "shadow banking" in europe or if they just have far too much sovereign debt on their books.