After its foundation in 2008, in the midst of the global financial crisis, the FMSA became an important pillar of Germany’s financial market architecture. The FMSA managed not only numerous shareholdings with financial institutions via the Financial Market Stabilisation Fund (FMS or SoFFin) on behalf of the Federal Government, but was also responsible for nationally administering the Restructuring Fund's and since 2016 the Single Resolution Fund’s bank levy. Between 2015 and 2018, the FMSA assumed the role and responsibilities of the German National Resolution Authority within the European Single Resolution Mechanism, too. Thus, in close cooperation with the Single Resolution Board, the FMSA drafted resolution plans for German banks.

Till 31 December 2025, the FMSA solely supervised the two winding-up agencies, Erste Abwicklungsanstalt (EAA) and FMS Wertmanagement (FMS-WM) as well as Portigon AG. These have been founded under its auspices in order to stabilize the financial market. On 1 January 2026, legal supervision was transferred to the Federal Ministry of Finance. Since then, all other coordination and monitoring tasks relating to the resolution institutions have been taken over by the Finance Agency, which has also been responsible for administering the FMS since 2018.