Banking Day had a go at coaxing outgoing ANZ CEO Mike Smith to open up on more of the drama of the financial crisis in its exit interview this week, with only limited success."A couple of the smaller banks were looking a little dicey," Smith said when asked about the weekend in October 2008 when Australia's government rushed in the deposit guarantee."A couple of the Queensland banks were not looking too good that day."I think the smaller banks would have found it difficult without a guarantee, there was no doubt."Because the international debt markets closed, so it was going to get quite difficult."You always had the central bank, but they would look to one of the big banks to step in."Asked to reflect on where the then treasurer, Wayne Swan, and Treasury were in the build-up to the crisis (with Swan blocking an agreed merger of ANZ and NAB in June of 2008) Smith said: "Look, I think it was new to everybody. The government was new at that time."Did they comprehend the magnitude or the knock-on effect? No, I don't think they did initially, but they learned very quickly."The good thing about that period is they took advice and they knew what they didn't know."I remember I called Wayne Swan at one point after Iceland and then Germany put a guarantee on debt."I said, the problem is Australia goes from top of the pile on safety and security to the bottom pile and this going to be a problem."He understood that and gave us what was needed."When the government gave us the guarantee on bank debt they insisted we pay for that. It was like a credit enhancement from an insurance company."And of course that become quite a good earner."