What is critical about the legislation is the acceptance that ailing financial institutions of any type or size and, crucially, systemically important institutions can be allowed to fail without risk to financial stability while avoiding costs to the taxpayer. This must be the nub of the solution. The European Commission document, An EU Framework for Crisis Management in the Financial Sector, produced in 2010 forms the backdrop to the legislation. The framework makes the following interesting and important assertion: "Banks must be allowed to fail, like any other business." This is the key aspect of the solution and the purpose of the legislation is to establish rules, regulations, supports and mechanisms to ensure such failures can proceed in an orderly fashion, rather than having the burden transferred to taxpayers.

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