Bank failures and rescues/Timelines

A chronology of bank failures and rescues

Before WW1

United States

Bank runs occur in 1793, 1797, 1810, 1815, 1819, 1825, 1833, 1837, 1839, 1847, 1857, 1873, 1884, 1890, 1893, and 1907 [1] [2].

1914 Federal Reserve Bank created [3].

United Kingdom

1866 Overend-Gurney bank's collapse causes a banking panic [4]

1890 Barings crisis. The Bank of England organises rescue of Barings bank by the Rothschilds bank.

The inter-war years

US bank failure statistics

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 [5].)

1923

Norway: failure of the Centralbanken for Norge.

1925

Spain: failure of Banco de la Union Miniere and Banco Vasca.

1926

Poland: runs on 3 major banks.

1927

Japan: runs on 32 banks.

1929

Austria: failure of Bodencreditanstalt. Germany: failure of Frankfurter Allgemeine Versicherungs AG.

1930

United States: failure of Bank of America. France: failure of Banque Adam and the Oustric Group.

1931

United States: failure of over 1800 banks. Austria: failure of Creditanstalt Bank. France: failure of Banque Nationale de Crédit, Romania: failure of Banca Generale a Tari Românesti and Banca Marmerosh. Runs on banks in Argentina, Poland, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Turkey, Egypt and Mexico.

1932

United States: Chicago banking panic

1933

United States: general banking panic, followed by "banking holiday". Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation created [6].

1934

Belgium: failure of Banque Nationale de Travail.

1940 to 2007

( (S) denotes a crisis that is classed as "systemic" on the World Bank database of banking crises [7])

The 1970s

1974 German Herstatt bank failure

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 [8]

1981 Mexican banking crisis (S) [9].

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

1984 80 US bank failures

US Continental Illinois bank rescue [10] [11]. The "too big to fail" doctrine [12].

UK Johnson Matthey bank failure.

1985 120 US bank failures.

1987 Danish banking crisis.

1988 Norwegian banking crisis starts [13].

The 1990s

The decade:

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

1990 Bank of New England failure [14].

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

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

UK Bank of Credit and Commerce International failure [15].

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

Japanese credit cooperatives Tokyo Kyowa and Anzen fail.

1995 UK Barings bank failure [16].

1996 Jamaican banking crisis (S).

1997 The beginning of the Asian banking crisis (S) [17][18].

1998 US Long Term Capital Management hedge fund rescue [19]

Early 2000s

2001 Argentinian banking crisis (S).

2007

The year 2007

The bursting of the United States housing bubble and the development there of the subprime mortgages crisis.

March

Signs of crisis in the US subprime mortgages market[20]

April

Failure of New Century Financial (the second-largest subprime lender)[21]

June

25 Two of the Bear Stearns bank's hedge funds are threatened by losses from mortgage defaults [22].

August

2 German IKB is bank rescued from bankrutcy[23]

6 American Home Mortgage becomes bankrupt [24].

9 French bank BNP Paribas freezes some of its funds because it is unable to value their US mortgage-backed assets. [25]

September

The UK's Northern Rock suffers a bank run [26]

October

Citibank, Merill Lynch and UBS announce asset writedowns

December

The Federal Reserve announces launch of the international Term Auction Facility[27] [28]

2008

January

US mortgage lender Countrywide sold to Bank of America after its share price drops by 48% [29].

February

Northern Rock bank nationalised[30].

March

The Bear Stearns bank is sold to J P Morgan Chase & Co for $2 a share[31] [32] (with $30 billion support from the Federal Reserve)

April

The Bank of England announces its Special Liquidity Scheme[33] (to allow banks to swap temporarily their high quality mortgage-backed and other securities for UK Treasury Bills)

August

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rescued [34].

September

7 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac "nationalised" [35].

12 The Lehman Brothers bank becomes bankrupt [36] with losses of $365 billion to insurers of its bonds.

15 The Merrill Lynch bank is sold to Bank of America after major capital writedowns [37].

17 American Insurance Group "nationalised" [38].

UK's Halifax/Bank of Scotland (HBOS) accepts rescue bid from Lloyds TSB [39].

18 Paulson Rescue plan proposed (US Treasury scheme to take "toxic assets" out of the US banking system) [40]

23 The Federal Reserve Bank protects Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley banks[41].

26 Washington Mutual is closed by it's regulator. Assets sold to JPMorgan Chase [42].

28 UK's Bradford and Bingley bank is nationalised [43].

Multiple European bank rescues [44].

30 Iceland's Glitnir bank is nationalised [45].

October

3 Modified Paulson Plan (to purchase toxic assets) approved by Congress [46].

Dutch Fortis and ABN Amro are banks nationalised [47].

Germany's Hypo Real Estate bank is rescued [48]

Icelandic economic crisis [49].

6 US Wachovia Corpis rescued [50].

7 Federal Reserve announces its Commercial Paper Funding Scheme[51]

8 UK rescue plan (to inject capital, take equity in banks and guarantee interbank lending) [52] [53].

10 G7 Action Plan agreed in general terms by finance ministers [54].

12 EU leaders adopt UK rescue plan'  :[55].

13 UK government to take equity in Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and Halifax/Bank of Scotland[56] [57][58].

14 President Bush announces new plans (to inject capital, take equity in banks and guarantee interbank lending) [59].

US government to take equity in Bank of America, J P Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, & Goldman Sachsbanks[60].

16 UBS rescue by £30 bn from Swiss government [61].

23 Federal Reserve Bank provides $540 billion support for money market funds.

German bank BayernLLB seeks $7 billion aid

French government provides $14 billion aid to BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and 4 other banks.

Swedish government announces $200 billion rescue proposal.

Dutch ING bank gets $13 billion government lifeline.

November

20 The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announces its loan guarantee scheme[62]

23 US Federal Reserve Bank promises to buy up to $500 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities guarantee by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and up to $100billion worth of their direct debt [63].

US government makes $20 billion cash injection into Citigroup bank and guarantees against loss on $306 billion of iliquid assets [64] [65] [66][67]

December

:US government rescues CIT Group for $2.3bn

US government rescues Fifth Third Bankcorp for $3.4bn

US government rescues PNC Suntrust Banks for $1.4bn

Irish government rescues Allied Irish## Banks for $2.0bn.

2009

January

US government rescues Bank of America for £20bn

German government rescues West Lb for $6.4bn.

February

More on the Asset Protection Scheme [68]

March

UK government to take controlling interest in Lloyds TSB under its Asset Protection Scheme [69].

April

According to the European Commission, member governments have so far committed $3.9 trillion (25% of the 27-nation GDP) to bank rescues [70].

May

EU Commission's regulatory proposals[71]

June

President Obama's proposals for regulatory reform[72]