Big bankers defend against critics amid crisis

For example, he said banks had "twice as much capital as before" to pad against losses and that JP Morgan had helped clients raise money for socially-important projects in schools and hospitals.

Axel Weber, a former central banker and current chairman of Swiss-based bank UBS, acknowledged the "excesses" of the past but said it was pointless to debate breaking up banks.

"Where does the financial sector start or stop?" he asked. "It's so intricately linked that we shouldn't throw out the baby with the bathwater .... We all provide valuable social functions."

Both spoke in Davos at the annual gathering of more than 2,500 corporate and political leaders.

Among those questioning the bankers' assertion that the financial sector is doing fine and doing its job was Min Zhu, deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

"The financial sector is too big," he said. "The products are too complicated. Transparency is not there. In this sense, I say the financial sector still has a long way to go."

Andrei Kostin, chairman of Russia's VTB Bank argued it was governments who ran up excess debts — and not banks — and were largely to blame for recent economic troubles.

"We should have better regulations but not necessarily more," he said.