The ongoing financial crisis did not come out of the blue sky. The continuous over the past 15 years rise in bank non-interest income, the product of the severe competitive pressures banks were facing on both the asset and liability-side of their balance sheets, was associated with a marked increase in their systematic risk. We quantify this increase using data for OECD countries and a conditional CAPM approach. Our results indicate that the rise in bank non-interest income is associated with about 50% increase in the beta of bank stocks. The policy implications of our findings are also discussed.