The aim of this paper is to analyse the effectiveness of EU legislation introduced in response to the 2008 financial crisis in ensuring the stability of the banking sector and the ability to deal with future financial crises. The scope of the research includes an attempt to define the financial crisis as a phenomenon linked to other crises in the context of globalisation and the integration of financial markets, the interdependencies between crises and the objectives of the regulations adopted within the European Union. The paper seeks to address the question of how the current regulatory framework would function in the face of a recurrence of a financial crisis of similar magnitude.