Which financial institution's failure intensified the 2008 global stock-market crash?

Lehman Brothers' failure intensified the 2008 global stock-market crash.

The investment bank filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, after efforts to find a buyer failed. With more than $600 billion in assets, it was the largest bankruptcy filing in United States history at the time. The collapse exposed how deeply financial institutions were connected through mortgages, derivatives, and short-term lending.

Bear Stearns had already been rescued and sold in March 2008, but Lehman's bankruptcy caused a sharper worldwide shock. The failure did not single-handedly create the crisis: falling U.S. house prices, subprime mortgage losses, excessive leverage, and frozen credit markets were already weakening the system. Lehman became the defining symbol of the crisis's escalation.