Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, a defining event in the 2008 global stock-market crash.
The investment bank had built significant exposure to U.S. mortgages and mortgage-related securities. As housing prices fell and mortgage defaults increased, the value of those assets became increasingly uncertain. Lehman could not secure a buyer or government-backed rescue and filed for the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history at that time.
The filing intensified fear throughout global financial markets. Banks became reluctant to lend to one another, credit markets froze, and stock indexes fell sharply in the United States and abroad. The crisis had already begun before Lehman’s collapse, but the bankruptcy became a widely recognized turning point.
Lehman’s failure is sometimes confused with the later rescue of American International Group. AIG received a government bailout on September 16, 2008, one day after Lehman filed.