A speech this week by a senior executive at the Reserve Bank should force all investors to reassess their holdings (if they have them) in Australian banks

In short, if you are looking for capital gains in the next three years from bank shares, which dominate the local market, then think again.

And if you are income driven, the banks will find themselves under increasing pressure to drive earnings higher, putting a question mark over hopes for a return to the dramatic rises in income we saw before the financial crisis set in 2007-08.

The signs of the coming strains are there already.

In fact, apart from the falling bad debt provisions, the banks struggled to boost revenues and especially earnings, in their most recent reporting periods or updates.

The RBA's Assistant governor in charge of financial markets, Guy Debelle