Which 2008 event marked the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers and intensified the global stock-market crash?

Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy marked a major turning point in the 2008 global stock-market crash.

The investment bank filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on September 15, 2008, after suffering enormous losses connected to U.S. mortgage-backed securities and failing to secure a buyer or government rescue. It became the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history at that time.

Lehman’s failure intensified fear about the solvency of banks and financial institutions. Credit markets seized up, stock prices plunged, and governments across the world introduced emergency lending, guarantees, capital injections, or other stabilization measures.

Lehman did not cause every part of the crisis. The wider disaster also involved excessive housing-credit risk, complex derivatives, weak underwriting, and high leverage. Bear Stearns had already collapsed earlier in 2008, while Merrill Lynch was acquired by Bank of America.