From Paul Sheehan...

Everyone has a bad banking story, and we take for granted all the productive things the banks do for us. It is the bad stories that come to mind when the big four banks issue their profit statements. In the latest financial year the big four made a combined profit of $24 billion.

So strong is their profitability that all of the big four Aussie banks are ranked in the top 25 of the world's largest banks measured by market value. Such is our market concentration, Australia has four banks in this top 25, the same as the US, while Britain has two, Japan one, France one and Germany none. It's because Australia's big four have a combined return on equity - profit - more than twice the global average for banks.

Still, I much prefer the status quo to the alternatives in the US and Europe, where solidity has given way to stress.