Still On Top

A new study by the World Economic Forum ranks the world's strongest financial systems. Despite being the epicenter of the worst global financial crisis since WWII, the United States comes out on top. The project's lead academic, New York University's Nouriel Roubini, spoke with Rana Foroohar:

What does it say about the overall financial health of the world that the U.S. still has the strongest financial system?
The study had several major categories—regulatory environment, capitalization, business climate, access to credit and so on—and stability was just one of them. On that front, the U.S. actually ranked No. 10, not No. 1. The U.K.—No. 2 overall—was even lower, in 22nd place.

Hong Kong places No. 8, but India, which many consider to have a stronger and more Westernized system, doesn ' t make the top 10.
India [is] still very rural and incredibly underbanked. There are lots of people in India who simply have no access to any type of banking services. That's not the case in China.

What surprised you most about the ranking?
That it wasn't a clear-cut case of more developed nations scoring higher than less developed ones ... Italy, for example, was No. 22 overall, lower than a number of emerging nations like [South] Korea and Malaysia. I think that trend is going to strengthen.

© 2008