Why don't you value a bank or insurer with a standard EV/EBITDA or unlevered DCF, and what do you use instead?

For financial institutions, debt isn't just financing — it's raw material (deposits, funding, policy reserves), so the line between operating and financing is blurred and concepts like enterprise value, EBITDA and unlevered free cash flow don't make sense; you can't separate operating from financing cash flows. Interest is core revenue/cost, not a capital-structure item, and 'capex/working capital' aren't meaningful. So you value the equity directly: a dividend discount model or an equity-cash-flow / free-cash-flow-to-equity model discounted at the cost of equity, where distributable cash is constrained by regulatory capital requirements (you can only pay out what capital rules allow). On multiples you use equity-based ones — price/earnings and especially price/book (or price/tangible book) versus return on equity, since for financials value relative to book is driven by ROE vs cost of equity. For insurers you also see embedded-value / appraisal-value methods. The unifying point: value equity directly with equity discount rates and equity multiples, respecting regulatory capital, never EV/EBITDA.