Bank failures and rescues > Timelines
From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium
A chronology of bank failures and rescues
Contents |
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 collapse causes banking panic [4]
1890 Barings crisis. Bank of England organises rescue of Barings bank by Rothschilds
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 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 the 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, Rumania: 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
- 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 Bear Stearns hedge funds threatened by losses from mortgage defaults [22].
August
- 2 German IKB bank rescue [23]
- 6 American Home Mortgage bankrupt [24].
- 9 French bank BNP Paribas freezes funds because it is .unable to value its US mortgage-backed assets. [25]
September
- UK Northern Rock bank run [26]
October
- Citibank, Merill Lynch and UBS announce writedowns
December
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
- Bear Stearns bought by J P Morgan Chase & Co for $2 a share[31] [32] (with $30 billion support from the Fesderal Reserve)
April
- 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 Lehman Brothers bankrupt [36] with losses of $365 billion to insurers of its bonds.
- 15 Merrill Lynch sold to Bank of America after major capital write-downs [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 Federal Reserve Bank protects Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley banks[41].
- 26 Washington Mutual closed by regulator. Assets sold to JPMorgan Chase [42].
- 28 UK bank Bradford and Bingley nationalised [43].
- Multiple European bank rescues [44].
- 30 Icelandic Glitnir bank nationalised [45].
October
- 3 Modified Paulson Plan (to purchase toxic assets) approved by Congress [46].
- Dutch Fortis and ABN Amro banks nationalised [47].
- German Hypo Real Estate bank rescued [48]
- Icelandic economic crisis [49].
- 6 US Wachovia Corp 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 Sachs[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 FDIC 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 WestLB 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]

