One outcome of the financial crisis that has not received much attention is the impact it will have on the ambitions of big retailers and telecommunications companies to get into the financial services market. Those ambitions have been dealt a heavy blow, according to a senior banker.Westpac Institutional Bank group executive Rob Whitfield said one of the lessons of the GFC was that brand, technology and distribution were not enough for success in financial services.Whitfield said: "The GFC showed that balance sheet is critical for success. It is a strong balance sheet that allows you to develop a proposition for the customer."He said he did not expect that situation to change for many years. Regulatory change would put even more emphasis on balance sheet strength in future.This analysis raises questions about the role of groups such as Woolworths that are keen to offer not only financial products to their customers but also payment services.Whitfield was speaking at a Financial Services Institute of Australia panel discussion in Sydney yesterday on the future of financial services. He said he was confident the big local banks had a secure place as "dominant locals" or "super regionals". He said: "In other markets the dominant locals tend to give way to global companies. But in banking we are not seeing a repeat of the Holden story. There is always a need for a stable payment system in each economy."Group executive at NAB Wealth, Steve Tucker, said the situation in wealth management was very different. He said he agreed with the view of the Cooper Review that the superannuation industry needed to be more efficient and was likely to go through a period of significant consolidation.All participants, including Finsia chief executive Martin Fahy and Bank of American-Merrill Lynch Australia chief executive, Craig Drummond, said their industry was still working out how to tap into the potential of Asian markets.Tucker said the industry did not understand what the Australian government was trying to achieve with its Asia hub strategy.Fahy said the local industry was sitting on the sidelines when super funds should be active in Asian markets and Australian banks should be playing their part funding the growth in the region.Whitfield said there was plenty of capital in Asia that would support the continued growth of the Australian economy but the local industry had to find better ways to access Asian capital markets.Drummond said he expected to see an emerging trend where large Australian companies would have dual listings on Asian stock exchanges, with Shanghai the first pick, to get closer to Asian sources of capital.