Doing nothing would mean allowing the presence and growth in markets of large unregulated firms, creating the potential for large negative effects on the financial system should they follow the path trodden by some such firms in the years preceding the crisis. On the other hand, as already suggested, treating financial firms of all sorts as banks could be both ineffective and inefficient.
The state of the financial system has also improved; the wholesale and retail markets, fundamental for the procurement of funds and the exchange of financial products, appear to be gradually getting back into gear. But we are far from the pre-crisis levels of output and employment.