Nearly three years after the global financial crisis, a recent McKinsey survey¹ of executives in financial services indicates that their institutions overall feel positive, in line with the restored performance many are seeing: respondents note few concerns about the availability of funding, though those working at European banks are more concerned than others. Only about half say their institutions plan to reduce costs by more than 5 percent, and slightly more than half who expect future returns on equity to be high (greater than 15 percent) already saw high returns last year.

But at points beneath the surface, respondents indicate complacency, a lack of organization-wide responses to trends, or serious problems. Strong shares of respondents report that their top managements spend only up to 25 percent more time on regulatory and government issues than before the crisis and—contrary to the predictions of many analysts—say the Basel III regulation will have just a marginal impact on credit and growth. A full quarter of respondents don’t know what share of their customers currently use online banking. More than half of investment bankers say their institutions adequately managed risk during the crisis....