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].

United Kingdom

1866 Overend-Gurney collapse causes banking panic [3]

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 [4].)

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"

1940 to 2007

The 1980s

Savings and Loans crisis - Failure of 296 US "Savings and Loans" mortgage lenders [5]

The 1990s

The decade:

Banking crises in Switzerland, United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Japan and the US [6].

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

1997-8 Asian banking crisis [7].

1998 LTCM rescue [8]

2007

June

25 Two Bear Stearns hedge funds threatened by losses from mortgage defaults [9].

August

2 German IKB bank rescue [10]

6 American Home Mortgage bankrupt [11].

9 French bank BNP Paribas freezes funds because it is .unable to value its US mortgage-backed assets. [12]

September

UK Northern Rock bank run [13]

2008

January

US mortgage lender Countrywide sold to Bank of America after its share price drops by 48% [14].

February

Northern Rock bank nationalised[15].

March

Bear Stearns rescued [16]

August

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rescued [17].

September

7 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac nationalised [18].

12 Lehman Brothers bankrupt[19] with losses of $365 billion to insurers of its bonds.

15 Merrill Lynch sold to Bank of America after major capital write-downs [20].

17 American Insurance Group nationalised [21].

UK's Halifax/Bank of Scotland (HBOS) accepts rescue bid from Lloyds TSB [22].

18 Paulson Rescue plan proposed (US Treasury scheme to take "toxic assets" out of the US banking system) [23]

23 Federal Reserve Bank protects Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley banks[24].

26 Washington Mutual closed by regulator. Assets sold to JPMorgan Chase [25].

28 UK bank Bradford and Bingley nationalised [26].

Multiple European bank rescues [27].

30 Icelandic Glitnir bank nationalised [28].

October

3 Modified Paulson Plan (to purchase toxic assets) approved by Congress [29].

Dutch Fortis and ABN Amro banks nationalised [30].

German Hypo Real Estate bank rescued [31]

Icelandic economic crisis [32].

6 US Wachovia Corp rescued [33].

8 UK rescue plan (to inject capital, take equity in banks and guarantee interbank lending) [34] [35].

10 G7 Action Plan agreed in general terms by finance ministers [36].

12 EU leaders adopt UK rescue plan  :[37].

13 UK government to take equity in Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and Halifax/Bank of Scotland [38][39].

14 President Bush announces new plans (to inject capital, take equity in banks and guarantee interbank lending) [40].

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 [41].