Impact of the credit crisis on investment banks Essay

Five years on from the beginning of the worst financial crisis he world has seen we are still in a perils state of low or negative growth and low interest

On September 15th 2008, the investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. It was, and still is, the biggest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history , with Lehman’s holding $691 billion in assets at the time. The event was the catalyst for the current financial crisis. By the end of trading that day, $700bn had been wiped off the global stock markets. The Dow Jones had plummeted 500 points, its biggest drop since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 . Despite rumours and knowledge that Lehman’s was struggling, with its share price dropping daily, the huge drop in the financial markets was due to the huge shock. No-one had been expecting this, as it was anticipated

Bear Stearns near-bankruptcy and bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers did significantly increase the risk of the crisis becoming systemic. Because of their large size and their key role in some markets, their failure has caused a panic among investors beginning not only in the US but also in the international financial markets. It is therefore unquestionably the largest bankruptcies of financial history of the United States.

As one of the largest banking holding companies, Bank of America has taken a significant role during the whole process of the financial crisis. Compared with financial institutions whose business focused on specific fields, like investment banks or mortgage companies, Bank of Along got involved in activities in various fields that directly related with crisis – deregulation from big banks lobbying, mortgage originating, mortgage securitizing, and CDS dealing. Besides, as a systematically important financial institution, Bank of America was highly

Lehman Brothers was a company in the United States that operated in the financial market before the financial crisis that occurred in the year 2008. The company was listed in the New York Stock Exchange and its securities were publicly traded. For many years, the company was performing well. However, a failure to manage risks appropriately led to the collapse of the company. On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers, which was the fourth biggest investment bank in the U.S, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. At the

On September 15, 2008, the American bank Lehman Brothers, with holdings over 600 billion USD, filed bankruptcy. This was by far the biggest bankruptcy in U.S history and it marked the beginning and the largest financial crisis ever. How can one of the biggest banks in the world fail? How can a bankruptcy in US make someone on the other side of the world unemployed? The answer is Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) and it all started by new innovations in the financial sector combined with deregulations on the financial market.

Due to there not being any ring fencing restrictions with the Banks that associated with Lehman brothers, many banks were therefore not insulated by the folded firm causing a massive ripple effect within the Western world Economy which allowed for such a detrimental World recession to occur.

Lehman Brothers, based in New York City, was the fourth largest global investment bank until 2008. They provided financial investment services, banking, and management around the globe.

In 2008, the global financial industry experienced dramatic changes when the global financial crisis came furiously. In the United States, the historical changes appeared in the structure of investment banking. These changes included the fifth-largest US investment bank, Bear Stearns and the third-largest US investment bank, Merrill Lynch was acquired respectively, and the fourth-largest US investment bank, Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. In addition, the Goldman Sachs and the Morgan Stanley had no choice but to transform separately into the bank holding company. Moreover, the American government took over the Fannie Mae and the Freddie Mac and held a major share in the American International Group. There were also various events about the bankruptcy and merger of the other financial institutions. In the wider world, some banks in Belgium, Britain, Switzerland and Germany also got into the dilemmas and troubles, and these banks accepted the government aids without choices.

There are many articles online about Lehman Brothers bankruptcy and how their actions and the housing bubble led to their demise. Though each

Lehman brothers was the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank with $639 billion in assets and $619 billion in debt. With almost 25,000 employees worldwide Lehman's bankruptcy filing was the largest in history, they’re failure also made it the largest victim of the U.S subprime mortgage induced financial crisis that metastasized through the global financial markets in 2008. Lehman's collapse was an influential incident that greatly intensified the 2008 crisis and contributed to the corrosion of close to $10 trillion in market capitalization from global equity markets in October 2008, the most prevalent monthly decline on record at the time.

158-years-old institution, the Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc., Sought chapter 11 protections on September 15, 2008, indicating the largest bankruptcy filed in the U.S. history. The Lehman declared $639 billion in assets and $619 billion on debts, which surpassed the previous bankruptcy filed by WorldCom and Enron. The Lehman brother was 4th best-ranked U.S. Investment bank and globally 7th best investment bank before the collapse. An industry that had 25,000 employees worldwide crumbled into almost nothing within a week, which is one of the seminal event in the global financial crisis. The Lehman Brothers’ demise was a result of substantial attention to the U.S. subprime mortgage and the real estate markets that coaxed into global financial crisis, when these markets began to slow-down.

The global financial crisis of 2008 that reeked havoc on most of the financial institutions had them fall into liquidation and bankruptcy. One of the most popular and most debated incident was the failure of the Lehman Brothers. The Lehman Brothers were a leading US investment bank that was worth $600 billion (D’Arcy). The global financial crisis prompted Lehman Brothers to close its leading subprime lender (BNC Mortages) in 23 locations (). The closing of these locations were so aggressive that the company filed for voluntary bankruptcy on September 15, 2008 (“Lehman Brothers Collection”). The file for bankruptcy was needed after an unsuccessful attempt for a government bail-out and mergers. Although this was a United States based

This chapter is about the background of 2007-2008 financial crisis. The 2007-2008 financial crisis has a huge impact on US banking system and how the banks operate and how they are regulated after the financial turmoil. This financial crisis started with difficulty of rolling over asset backed commercial papers in the summer of 2007 due to uncertainty on the liquidity of mortgage backed securities and questions about the soundness of banks and non-bank financial institutes when interest rate continued to go up at a faster pace since 2004. In March 2008 the second wave of liquidity loss occurred after US government decided to bailout Bear Stearns and some commercial banks, then other financial institutions took it as a warning of financial difficulty of their peers. In the meantime banks started hoarding cash and reserve instead of lending out to fellow banks and corporations. The third wave of credit crunch which eventually brought down US financial system and spread over the globe was Lehman Brother’s bankruptcy in August 2008. Many major commercial banks in US held structured products and commercial papers of Lehman Brother, as a result, they suffered a great loss as Lehman Brother went into insolvency. This panic of bank insolvency caused loss of liquidity in both commercial paper market and inter-bank market. Still banks were reluctant to turn to US government or Federal Reserve as this kind of action might indicate delicacy of

So in order for banks to survive they start selling their assets to fill the deficit they are facing. However, this asset liquidation will not only affect one bank but will rather have an impact on the whole financial sector forcing other banks to follow the failed ones and sell their assets (Kashyap, Rajan et al. 2008).