System risk is the risk that the failure of one financial player, a bank in particular, will spread to the entire financial system and, beyond that, to the real economy. It manifests a de facto solidarity, passive and disordered, which makes financial intermediaries dependent on each other and, beyond that, all economic players dependent on the financial system. How did this de facto solidarity come about? How did it manifest itself in the financial crisis of 2008?
The unprecedented scale of this crisis demonstrated the need to replace the de facto solidarity that had spontaneously taken hold with an active, orderly solidarity based on the rule of law. In what ways? On the one hand, by disciplining the interdependencies between financial players, through the creation of "market infrastructures" capable of pooling risks and facilitating the control of public authorities. Secondly, by disciplining the solidarity that financial players can expect from public authorities.
