A total of $5.5 trillion (£3.8 trillion) has been wiped off the share prices of banks around the world because of the credit crisis.

Research by the Boston Consulting Group shows the losses on bank share prices amounts to ten per cent of global GDP.

At the end of 2008, only four banks had market values greater than $100 billion – the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the China Construction Bank, JPMorgan Chase, and HSBC – compared to 11 a year before.

In the UK, Barclays has seen its share price fall from 790p in February 2007 to the current level of 95p.

Royal Bank of Scotland – now 68 per cent owned by the UK government – now stands at 18p – compared to 703p in March 2007.

HSBC – which is judged to have weathered the financial storm – has seen its UK share price fall from over 900p in early October 2008 to 501p now.

Lloyds Banking Group – which took on the loss-maker HBOS – has seen its share price fall from over 600p in 2007 to the current level of 53p.

The market value of the world’s 30 largest banks dropped from $3.2 trillion in 2007 to $1.7 trillion in 2008.

Lars-Uwe Luther, author of the report into the banks, predicted a major change to the way banking is carried out.

“There is going to be a ‘new normal’ – a more difficult, challenging environment for financial institutions, which will persist for a considerable time.

“But the crisis will prove to be as transformative as it is destructive.”

The report predicts a change in banking towards more firms funded mainly by their savers deposits and a re-emergence of “traditional old-fashioned banking” – which will be highly regulated, more cautious and more focussed on customers.

The report states: “Although securitisation will not vanish, banks will concentrate on basic products as they focus on generating new deposits-the lifeblood of their business.

“They have learned the lesson that their modern financial wizards were no more able to turn lead into gold than the alchemists of old.”