Which 2008 event marked the collapse of the investment bank whose failure intensified the global stock-market crash?

The 2008 event that marked the collapse of the investment bank whose failure intensified the global stock-market crash was the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy.

Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on September 15, 2008. It was the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history at that time, with more than $600 billion in assets. The firm had accumulated large exposures to mortgage-related securities while the U.S. housing market was weakening.

Lehman’s failure damaged confidence because its trading partners and investors could not immediately determine who was exposed to its obligations. Credit markets tightened, and stock markets around the world fell sharply. The crisis also involved other institutions: Bear Stearns had been rescued in March 2008, while Merrill Lynch agreed to be acquired by Bank of America in September.

Lehman’s bankruptcy was a major accelerant, not the beginning of the entire crisis. Problems in U.S. mortgage lending and securitized credit had developed for years beforehand.