Finance is one of the pillars of modern society. You need finance to bankroll everything from scientific research to wars to infrastructure development. The dominance of the British Empire, for example, was intertwined with that of its banks: https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/can-place-built-on-gl.... The quality of a country's investment bankers is incredibly important, and America has benefited tremendously from having a very strong banking sector. (You should watch Hamilton.)