It will come as no surprise to most business leaders that the traditional means of financing businesses are transforming. Revolutionary changes to the global financial markets and advances in technology are altering funding sources and the mechanisms for accessing them. Before 2001 the financial market was dominated by large, trusted banks that offered a traditional approach to lending and provided the majority of finance for businesses, typically underpinned by security on physical , material assets or assets tied to the business owner. The string of scandals that have plagued banks since then - from rigging inter-bank interest rates to taking high-risk approaches to lending - has led to fundamental changes in the availability of back lending and a new dawn of banking regulations.
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