What name is given to the worldwide financial crisis that followed Lehman Brothers’ 2008 collapse?

The worldwide financial crisis that followed Lehman Brothers’ 2008 collapse is commonly called the Global Financial Crisis.

The crisis grew from problems in US housing finance, especially risky mortgage lending, complex mortgage-backed securities, excessive leverage, and weak risk assessment. When housing prices fell and borrowers began defaulting, financial institutions faced large losses. Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, intensifying panic in credit and stock markets worldwide.

Governments and central banks responded with emergency lending, bank rescues, guarantees, stimulus measures, and sharp interest-rate cuts. The crisis produced a severe recession and later prompted reforms to financial regulation. It is sometimes called the Global Financial Crisis of 2007–2008 or the Great Recession, but those terms are not perfectly identical: the crisis describes the financial breakdown, while the Great Recession describes the broader economic downturn.