This paper deals with the insolvency banks having cross-border size and activities, in light of the regulatory shortcomings highlighted by the crisis started in 2007. In particular, this paper starts by looking at some leading cases occurred since the inception of the crisis, in order to study the initiatives advanced for their solution. From this survey emerges a link between financial supervision and crisis intervention mechanisms
as regards the insolvency of banks. On this basis, this paper claims that the systems of financial supervision and the legal tools developed to handle the failure of banks should be viewed as two complementary elements, hence they should be elaborated consistently. In the light of this link, this paper proceeds by describing the main features of the supervisory framework and of the regulations on the subject of banks’
insolvency in force at EU level at the time of the crisis. On the basis of this description, this paper finally shows that financial supervision and crisis intervention were not planned at EU level as two complementary activities, arguing that many problems challenged by Member States in dealing with the insolvency of banks during the crisis were due to this circumstance.