This is a list of banking crises. A banking crisis is a

financial crisis A financial crisis is any of a broad variety of situations in which some financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many financial crises were associated with banking panics, and man ...

that affects banking activity. Banking crises include bank runs, which affect single banks; banking panics, which affect many banks; and systemic banking crises, in which a country experiences many defaults and financial institutions and corporations face great difficulties repaying contracts. A banking crisis is marked by bank runs that lead to the demise of financial institutions, or by the demise of a financial institution that starts a string of similar demises.

Bank runs

A bank run occurs when many bank customers withdraw their

deposits A deposit account is a bank account maintained by a financial institution in which a customer can deposit and withdraw money. Deposit accounts can be savings accounts, current accounts or any of several other types of accounts explained below. ...

because they believe the bank might fail. There have been many runs on individual banks throughout history; for example, some of the 2008–2009 bank failures in the United States were associated with bank runs.

Banking panics and systemic banking crises

18th century

* Crisis of 1763, started in Amsterdam, begun by the collapse of

Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky (21 November 1710 – 9 August 1775) was a Prussian merchant with a successful trade in trinkets, silk, taft, porcelain, grain and bills of exchange A negotiable instrument is a document guaranteeing the payment of a ...

and

Leendert Pieter de Neufville Leendert Pieter de Neufville (Amsterdam, March 8, 1729Rotterdam, July 28, 1811) was a Dutch merchant and banker trading in silk, linen, and grain. His business grew quickly during the Seven Years' War. De Neufville secretly supplied the Prussian ...

's bank, spread to Germany and Scandinavia * British credit crisis of 1772-1773 in London and Amsterdam, begun by the collapse of the bankers Neal, James, Fordyce and Down. *

Panic of 1792 The Panic of 1792 was a financial credit crisis that occurred during the months of March and April 1792, precipitated by the expansion of credit by the newly formed Bank of the United States as well as by rampant speculation on the part of Will ...

, New York *

Panic of 1796–1797 The Panic of 1796–1797 was a series of downturns in credit markets in both Great Britain and the newly established United States in 1796 that led to broader commercial downturns. In the United States, problems first emerged when a land speculati ...

, Britain and United States

19th century

Panic of 1819 The Panic of 1819 was the first widespread and durable financial crisis in the United States that slowed westward expansion in the Cotton Belt and was followed by a general collapse of the American economy that persisted through 1821. The Panic ...

, a U.S. recession with bank failures; culmination of U.S.'s first boom-to-bust economic cycle *

Panic of 1825 The Panic of 1825 was a stock market crash that started in the Bank of England, arising in part out of speculative investments in Latin America, including an imaginary country: Poyais. The crisis was felt most acutely in Britain, where it led to ...

, a pervasive British recession in which many banks failed, nearly including the Bank of England * Panic of 1837, a U.S. recession with bank failures, followed by a 5-year depression *

Panic of 1847 The Panic of 1847 was a minor British banking crisis associated with the end of the 1840s railway industry boom and the failure of many non-banks. Background As a means of stabilizing the British economy, the ministry of Robert Peel passed the ...

, United Kingdom * Panic of 1857, a U.S. recession with bank failures *

Panic of 1866 The Panic of 1866 was an international financial downturn that accompanied the failure of Overend, Gurney and Company in London, and the ''corso forzoso'' abandonment of the silver standard in Italy. In Britain, the economic impacts are held p ...

, Europe *

Panic of 1873 The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the ...

, a U.S. recession with bank failures, followed by a 4-year depression *

Panic of 1884 The Panic of 1884 was an economic panic during the Depression of 1882–1885. It was unusual in that it struck at the end rather than the beginning of the recession. The panic created a credit shortage that led to a significant economic decline i ...

, United States and Europe *

Panic of 1890 Panic is a sudden sensation of fear, which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety and frantic agitation consistent with an animalistic fight-or-flight reactio ...

, mainly affecting the United Kingdom and Argentina * Panic of 1893, a U.S. recession with bank failures *

Australian banking crisis of 1893 The 1893 banking crisis in the Australian colonies involved the collapse of a considerable number of commercial banks and building societies, and a general economic depression. It occurred at the same time as the US Panic of 1893 (1893–1897). ...

Panic of 1896 The Panic of 1896 was an acute economic depression in the United States that was less serious than other panics of the era, precipitated by a drop in silver reserves, and market concerns on the effects it would have on the gold standard. Deflatio ...

, acute U.S. recession

20th century

Panic of 1901 The Panic of 1901 was the first stock market crash on the New York Stock Exchange, caused in part by struggles between E. H. Harriman, Jacob Schiff, and J. P. Morgan/ James J. Hill for the financial control of the Northern Pacific Railway. The stoc ...

, a U.S. economic recession that started a fight for financial control of the Northern Pacific Railway * Panic of 1907, a U.S. economic recession with bank failures *

Shōwa Financial Crisis The was a financial panic in 1927, during the first year of the reign of Emperor Hirohito of Japan, and was a foretaste of the Great Depression. It brought down the government of Prime Minister Wakatsuki Reijirō and led to the domination of ...

, a 1927 Japanese

financial panic A financial crisis is any of a broad variety of situations in which some financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many financial crises were associated with banking panics, and man ...

that resulted in mass bank failures across the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of Japan, 1947 constitu ...

. * Great Depression, the worst systemic banking crisis of the 20th century * Secondary banking crisis of 1973–1975 in the UK * Japanese asset price bubble (1986–2003) * Savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s in the U.S. * 1988–1992 Norwegian banking crisis *

Finnish banking crisis of 1990s The Finnish Banking Crisis of 1990s was a deep systemic crisis of the entire Finnish financial sector that took place mainly in the years 1991–1993, after several years of debt-based economic boom in the late 1980s. Its total taxpayer cost was ...

* Sweden financial crisis 1990–1994 * Rhode Island banking crisis *Peruvian banking crisis of 1992 *

Venezuelan banking crisis of 1994 The 1994 banking crisis occurred in Venezuela when a number of the banks of Venezuela were taken over by the government. The first to fail, in January 1994, was Banco Latino, the country's second-largest bank. Later, two banks accounting for 18% of ...

* 1997 Asian financial crisis **

Enping financial crisis The Enping financial crisis occurred in Enping, Jiangmen, Guangdong in China after nationwide bank runs in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis brought a pattern of fraud to light in multiple of the city's banks. Fraud Local offici ...

*1998 collapse of Long-Term Capital Management * 1998 Russian financial crisis *

1998–2002 Argentine great depression The Argentine Great Depression was an economic depression in Argentina, which began in the third quarter of 1998 and lasted until the second quarter of 2002. It followed the fifteen years stagnation and a brief period of free-market reforms. ...

* 1998–1999 Ecuador economic crisis

21st century

* 2002 Uruguay banking crisis * 2003 Myanmar banking crisis *

Financial crisis of 2007–2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...

, including: :* Subprime mortgage crisis in the U.S. starting in 2007 :*

2008 United Kingdom bank rescue package In the period September 2007 to December 2009, during the events now widely known as the Global Financial Crisis, the UK government enacted a number of financial interventions in support of the UK banking sector and four UK banks in particular. ...

2009 United Kingdom bank rescue package A second bank rescue package totalling at least £50 billion was announced by the British government on 12 January 2009, as a response to the then-ongoing Financial crisis of 2007–2008. The package was designed to increase the amount of money t ...

2008–2009 Belgian financial crisis The 2008–2009 Belgian financial crisis is a major financial crisis that hit Belgium from mid-2008 onwards. Two of the country's largest banks – Fortis and Dexia – started to face severe problems, exacerbated by the financial problems hitting ...

2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis The Icelandic financial crisis was a major economic and political event in Iceland that involved the default of all three of the country's major privately owned commercial banks in late 2008, following their difficulties in refinancing their ...

Great Recession in Russia The Great Recession in Russia was a crisis during 2008–2009 in the Russian financial markets as well as an economic recession that was compounded by political fears after the war with Georgia and by the plummeting price of Urals heavy crude o ...

:* 2008–2009 Ukrainian financial crisis :*

2008–2014 Spanish financial crisis The 2008–2014 Spanish financial crisis, also known as the Great Recession in Spain or the Great Spanish Depression, began in 2008 during the world financial crisis of 2007–08. In 2012, it made Spain a late participant in the European sovere ...

Post-2008 Irish banking crisis The post-2008 Irish banking crisis was the situation whereby, due to the Great Recession, a number of Irish financial institutions faced almost imminent collapse due to insolvency. In response, the Irish government instigated a €64 billion ban ...

* Venezuelan banking crisis of 2009–2010 *

Ghana banking crisis The Ghana banking crisis was a severe banking crisis that affected Ghana between August 2017 and January 2020. The Bank of Ghana (BoG) allowed several indigenous banks to be taken over by private companies between August 2017 and January 2019 afte ...

of 2017–2018

References

Taylor, Alan M
The great leveraging
NBER 18290

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Banking crises Finance lists * Banking-related lists