Bank failures and rescues/Timelines

A chronology of bank failures and rescues

United States
Bank runs occur in 1793, 1797, 1810, 1815, 1819, 1825, 1833, 1837, 1839, 1847, 1857, 1873, 1884, 1890, 1893, and 1907.

1914 Federal Reserve Bank created.

United Kingdom
1866 Overend-Gurney collapse causes banking panic

1890 Bank of England organises rescue of Barings bank

US bank failure statistics

 * {|class = "wikitable"

!Year !1925 !1926 !1927 !1928 !1929 !1930 !1931 !1932 !1933 !1934 !1935/40 average
 * Number of bank suspensions
 * 618
 * 976
 * 669
 * 488
 * 659
 * 1350
 * 2293
 * 1453
 * 4000
 * 57
 * 40
 * }
 * (Source Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis .)
 * (Source Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis .)

1929
Crash of 1929 and the start of the Great Depression

1930
First banking crisis.

1931
Second banking crisis

Austria's Creditanstalt Bank failure and the German banking crisis.

1932
Chicago banking panic

1933
US "banking holiday".

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Created

1940 to 2007
( (S) denotes a crisis that is classed as systemic on the World Bank database of banking crises)

The 1970s
1974 UK Secondary banking crisis.

1977 Banking crises in Israel (S) and Spain (S).

The 1980s
US Savings and Loans crisis - Failure of 296 US "Savings and Loans" mortgage lenders

1981 Mexican banking crisis (S).

1982 Banking crises in Singapore (S) and Turkey (S).

1984 US Continental Illinois bank rescue. The "too big to fail" doctrine.


 * UK Johnson Matthey bank failure.

1987 Danish banking crisis.

1988 Norwegian banking crisis starts.

The 1990s
The decade:


 * Failure of a further 451 US "Savings and Loans" mortgage lenders.

1990 Bank of New England failure


 * Banking crises in China (S) and Italy (S).

1991 Banking crises in Germany, Finland (S) and Japan (S).


 * UK BCCI bank failure.

1994 Banking crises in Australia (S), France, Brazil (S) and Mexico (S).

1996 Jamaican banking crisis (S).

1997 The beginning of the Asian banking crisis (S).

1998 US Long Term Capital Management hedge fund rescue

Early 2000s
2001 Argentinian banking crisis (S).

June

 * 25 Two Bear Stearns hedge funds threatened by losses from mortgage defaults.

August

 * 2 German IKB bank rescue


 * 6 American Home Mortgage bankrupt.


 * 9 French bank BNP Paribas freezes funds because it is .unable to value its US mortgage-backed assets.

September

 * UK Northern Rock bank run

January

 * US mortgage lender Countrywide sold to Bank of America after its share price drops by 48%.

February

 * Northern Rock bank nationalised.

March

 * Bear Stearns rescued

August

 * Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rescued.

September

 * 7 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac nationalised.


 * 12 Lehman Brothers bankrupt  with losses of $365 billion to insurers of its bonds.


 * 15 Merrill Lynch sold to Bank of America after major capital write-downs.


 * 17 American Insurance Group nationalised.


 * UK's Halifax/Bank of Scotland (HBOS) accepts rescue bid from Lloyds TSB.


 * 18 Paulson Rescue plan proposed (US Treasury scheme to take "toxic assets" out of the US banking system)


 * 23 Federal Reserve Bank protects Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley banks.


 * 26 Washington Mutual closed by regulator. Assets sold to JPMorgan Chase.


 * 28 UK bank Bradford and Bingley nationalised.


 * Multiple European bank rescues.


 * 30 Icelandic Glitnir bank nationalised.

October

 * 3 Modified Paulson Plan (to purchase toxic assets) approved by Congress.


 * Dutch Fortis and ABN Amro banks nationalised.


 * German Hypo Real Estate bank rescued


 * Icelandic economic crisis.


 * 6 US Wachovia Corp rescued.


 * 8 UK rescue plan (to inject capital, take equity in banks and guarantee interbank lending).


 * 10 G7 Action Plan agreed in general terms by finance ministers.


 * 12 EU leaders adopt UK rescue plan'  :.


 * 13 UK government to take equity in Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and Halifax/Bank of Scotland.


 * 14 President Bush announces new plans (to inject capital, take equity in banks and guarantee interbank lending).


 * US government to take equity in Bank of America, J P Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, & Goldman Sachs.


 * 16 UBS rescue by £30 bn from Swiss government.