Lehman Brothers

Lehman Brothers was the fourth largest US investment bank at the time of its bankruptcy filing in September 2008, at which point it had $639bn in assets. The bankruptcy was the largest in US history and triggered the Global Financial Crisis and ensuing global recession. Lehman had aggressively acquired sub-prime and Alt-A mortgage originators to underpin its sub-prime mortgage securitisation business. Lehman’s collapse was causedby plummeting values of residential and commercial real estate, unsustainable leverage and acute lack of liquidity. ,