The years of 2017-2019 mark the first 10-year anniversary of the latest global financial crisis. In the upfront to the financial turmoil, increasing global activity of banks was seen as a clear manifestation of financial and trade globalization. World trade has been flat since 2008, while cross-border financial flows are nearly ten times less compared with the pre-crisis level. Tightened regulation has heavily increased compliance burden on banks and has taken an intended toll on banks’ performance and capitalization. The paper suggests that even a restoring global economy will not return banks from the developed countries to the expansion pace seen before the crisis. Apart from increased home-biased behavior and global political uncertainty, international banking faces the headwinds of tighter regulation, stricter supervision, and digital disruption all of which distract resources and impede the potential growth of banks.