Jan 11
Bank of America pays $4 billion for Countrywide Financial after the mortgage lender goes bust when risky loans to shaky borrowers fail.
Feb 17
Britain's Northern Rock is nationalised after funding crisis.
March 16/17
Bear Stearns sold to US investment bank JP Morgan Chase for about US$2 a share.
July 13
US Treasury and Federal Reserve effectively nationalises mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a bid to support US housing market.
Sept 14/15
Investment bank Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy protection; rival Merrill Lynch agrees to be taken over by Bank of America.
Sept 16
Fed announces plan for US$85 billion loan to American International Group Inc in return for 80 per cent stake in the insurer; Britain's Barclays buys parts of Lehman's North American assets for US$1.75 billion.
Sept 17
British bank Lloyds TSB agrees to
rescue rival HBOS, scooping up Britain's biggest home loan
lender in an all-share deal.
Sept 18
The UK Financial Services Authority imposes a temporary ban on short-selling financial stocks, a move echoed in other centres.
Sept 19
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson calls for the government to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to take toxic mortgage assets off the books of financial companies to restore financial stability. News of the bailout plan helps world stock markets soar.
Sept 20
Details emerge of a US$700 billion plan to bail out firms burdened with bad mortgage debt.
A US bankruptcy judge approves a revised version of Barclays purchase of the core US business of Lehman.
Sept 21
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley
become bank holding companies regulated by the Fed.
Sept 22
Nomura Holdings Inc says it will buy Lehman's franchise in Asia Pacific and acquires Lehman's business in Europe. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial agrees to buy up to 20 per cent of Morgan Stanley for US$8.5 billion.
Sept 23
AIG signs 'definitive' agreement for up to US$85 billion in borrowings from the Fed, the main part of a rescue plan that will see it take a 79.9 per cent stake in the insurer.
Sept 24
Mr Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc says it will buy up to 9 per cent of Goldman, which also announced plans to sell US$2.5 billion in common stock.
CNN says the FBI is investigating Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and AIG and their senior executives for potential mortgage fraud.
Sept 25
Washington Mutual is closed by the US
government in the largest failure of a US bank. Its banking
assets are sold to JPMorgan Chase for US$1.9 billion.
Sept 29
Britain announces the nationalization of
mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley. Spain's Banco Santander
SA will buy its retail deposits and branch network. Banking and insurance company Fortis NV is bailed out by Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments to the tune of 11.2 billion euros. Wachovia agrees to sell most of its assets to Citigroup Inc in a deal brokered by regulators.
US House of Representatives rejects the US$700 billion rescue plan for the financial industry. Dow Jones posts its largest point decline ever while the S&P 500. SPX has its worst day since 1987 with an 8.8 per cent drop.
Sept 30
World stocks fall to near three-year lows but fears of a major meltdown ease as European losses are muted.
EU regulators endorse a 6.4 billion euro public bailout of Belgian-French financial services group Dexia SA.
Ireland pledges more than double its GDP to guarantee all bank deposits.
Oct 1
US Senate passed a revamped US financial
rescue plan aimed at restoring global financial stability,
sending the measure to the US House of Representatives for a vote expected on Friday. -- REUTERS