Oh it was rather important to the residents I had in my ear for several days last week - "the sky is falling" they told me as they ran in circles, "the economy will crash". Mind you these folk were mostly shop owners and sl "professionals" who have enough lindies coming in on a daily basis to make banks worthwhile as a holding station for their takings before their monthly cash-out or somesuch.

I think Mis Tateru is correct in that this will have very little aggregate effect on the global economy. To folk who are closer to the banks as clients, and deffinitely to the banks themselves, it's true - the sky has fallen. But it's had a large effect on only a small number of people, and as the economy normalizes I see very little difference in the long term.

Perhaps now there's a gap in the market for _real_ properly backed financial services, as they won't have to compete with smaller high risk cowboy operations. I'm sure any banks currently in SL which qualify as financial institutions under law IRL would agree, and be back trading as soon as they can get the paperwork together.