For now, let me just recall that so far euro area governments have committed 26% of GDP to supporting the financial sector (although the sum actually drawn is only about 10% of GDP). This support was necessary, not for the banks’ sake, but for the sake of the central role they play in the market economy.
This is particularly true in the euro area, where banks are firms’ main source of external funding, as opposed to other economies whose financial system is sometimes considered more “market based”. These differences across economies also determined different policy responses. The US and the UK initially focussed on asset support that was intended to return markets to proper functioning.