Zhou Xiaochuan, the head of China's central bank, has on various occasions reminded the financial sector about the importance of serving the real economy rather than becoming an isolated money churning machine pumping up a virtual economy.

Zhou's warning is of particular significance at a time when the government is stepping up financial reform, which could fundamentally change the ways banks have been doing business. The move, bold in concept and wide in scope, has understandably raised some concerns about the preparedness of the banking sector and the financial markets which have never been exposed to the, sometimes unforgiving, free market forces.

The outbreak of the financial crisis in the United States in 2008 demonstrated most forcefully the devastating effect of bankers' excesses, as they led to the unraveling of the virtual economy, or the bursting of the bubble, if you like, which, in turn, plunged the United States and European economies into a prolonged slump, which has come to be known as the "great recession".