The crisis following Lehman Brothers' collapse in 2008 was the global financial crisis.
Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, after losses tied to mortgage-related securities and a collapse in housing finance. The failure intensified a credit freeze and caused severe declines in stock markets around the world. Banks, insurers, and other financial institutions faced rapidly rising doubts about their solvency.
The crisis had developed over several years through U.S. housing-market excesses, risky mortgage lending, securitization, high leverage, and inadequate risk controls. Governments and central banks responded with emergency lending, bank rescues, interest-rate cuts, and fiscal stimulus.
The global financial crisis is often called the Great Recession, but the terms are not identical. The crisis refers mainly to the financial breakdown, while the Great Recession describes the broad economic downturn that followed. Its effects included unemployment, foreclosures, and major regulatory reforms.