The Economics of Banking (4th Edition) addresses the need for a user-friendly and mathematically accessible textbook that describes and explains the behavior of banks by examining trends and operations in banking within a microeconomic framework. It provides a sound theoretical basis for understanding bank behavior and requires only a basic knowledge of microeconomics. The book is aimed at final year undergraduates, taking a Banking & Finance degree and to MBA and specialized PG degrees in Finance that includes a Banking option. The book covers a wide range of topics, including global trends in banking and prospects for the future, retail and wholesale banking, theory of the banking firm, economics analysis of bank behavior, risk management, securitization, structure and competition of banking, efficiency, benchmarking and performance, loan pricing and credit rationing, bank regulation, money laundering, central bank policy, and the macroeconomics of banking.The fourth edition examines the challenge of Fintech and non-bank financing to the banking market. It examines the implications of the digitization of the means of payment on the banking system and the emergence of the digital bank. Additional material on bank typology includes recent developments in shadow banking, P2P, and Islamic banking. International banking will examine economic and political pressures in HQ location, regulatory arbitrage, and interface with investment banking. The section on credit rationing and credit pricing includes additional material on crowdfunding and models of credit provision by non-bank institutions in China, Russia, and other emerging markets. Bank regulation has been updated to examine the recent changes in USA, EU, UK, and global bank regulation. The macroeconomics of banking takes in the implications of zero interest rate policy on bank profitability and risk behavior.