Which investment bank filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008?

Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008.

More precisely, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of New York. The filing followed the investment bank’s heavy exposure to subprime mortgages and other difficult-to-value assets, a sharp fall in its share price, and the loss of confidence among clients and lenders.

Lehman had been the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States, behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch. Negotiations to rescue or sell the firm failed over the weekend of September 13–14, leaving the company to seek court protection before U.S. markets opened. Its filing, involving hundreds of billions of dollars in assets, remains the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.

The collapse intensified the global financial crisis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 500 points on September 15, and stress spread through money-market funds and interbank lending. Merrill Lynch was acquired by Bank of America, while Bear Stearns had already been rescued and sold earlier in 2008. Goldman Sachs did not file for bankruptcy.