To my mind, the crisis has shown that, like it or not, the state is needed as the ultimate guarantor of systemically important functions of the banking sector.
In a systemic crisis, deposit insurance schemes can succeed only if the state, and thus the taxpayer, credibly guarantees the liabilities, as illustrated, for example, by the TV appearance by Chancellor Merkel and Finance Minister Steinbrück in 2008, in which they guaranteed all banking deposits in Germany.