• - Early 2007: After a period of two years; That is, between 2004 and 2006, when the US raised interest rates from 1% to 5.35%, US housing markets began to suffer from falling prices and an increase in homeowners who had been unable to repay their mortgages. The proportion of subprime loans that were repaid; That is, subprime loans to customers with poor or no credit history increased to record levels.

• - February: Defaults in payments on subprime loans (mortgage credit to weak borrowers) increased in the United States and caused the first bankruptcies of specialized banks. The FED estimated the losses at fifty million dollars.

• - February 8: HSBC launched a profit warning, (in Spanish the closest translation of this term is profit alert) announcing that it had lost ten billion dollars, due to high-risk real estate loans that were not paid.

• - March 14: The Association of Mortgage Bankers") revealed that the number of defaults in the mortgage sector in the US (about six million contracts for $600 billion) reached its highest point in seven years.[13]​.

• - April: Credit losses associated with subprime were quite significant. Some estimate them between 50,000 and 100,000 million dollars.

• - April 2: New Century Financial"), which specializes in subprime mortgages, followed the United States' Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and cutbacks on half of its workforce. The downturn in the subprime market began to have an impact on banks around the world.[14]​.

• - July: The crisis began to develop and spread in the world. The stock markets began to waver. FED Chairman Ben Bernanke has warned that the US suppression crisis could cost up to $100bn (£50bn). Due to failed speculations in the North American real estate market, several German banks such as Mittelstandsbank IKB), Sachsen LB, WestLB and BayernLB went into crisis.[15]​.

• - July 18: Investment bank Bear Stearns announced that it will not receive money from its investments in two of its hedge funds after the other banks refused to help them. Some of the European stock markets fell: the CAC40 lost 1.69% and was down approximately 6000 points. In London, the Footsie index lost 1.38% to 6,567 points.

• - July 19: In New York, the Dow Jones broke a record by more than 14,000 points, and in the stock markets everything was full of euphoria "Euphoria (state)"). The FED estimated losses from subprime mortgages at up to 72 billion euros.[16]​.

• - July 26: Wall Street lost 2.26%, the London Stock Exchange, 3.15%, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, 2.39%, the Paris Stock Exchange 2.78% and finally, the Tokyo Stock Exchange lost 2.36% the next day.

• - August 1: European stock markets lost 2%. In Australia, Macquarie Bank") had expected losses of up to $258 million for two of its funds. In the US, American Home Mortgage"), a mortgage finance company, was unable to pay $300 million it owed.

• - August 6: American Home Mortgage"), Home Bank") and First Magnus Financial") went bankrupt. The German investment company Frankfurt Trust") froze the operation of one of its funds. In the morning, the FED left its rate unchanged, saying that "credit problems and the housing slump pose growing risks to the US economy."

August 2007

The banks distrusted each other and did not lend more money; or they only did so with extreme reluctance and at very high rates. The central banks (Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of Japan, Bank of England) intervened massively and made available to the banks (in the form of loans) more than 400 billion euros in cash (dollars, pounds "Pound (currency)", euros or yen). The market fears then spread to all credit operations. The share value of funds involved in real estate lending (including subprime, but also lending to creditworthy borrowers) collapsed. The value of the shares of the banking groups as well. To offset their losses in these markets, large investors began selling stocks in other sectors. These sales led to an overall decline in stock prices. Panic spread. The monetary crisis had become a stock market crisis that concerned not only Wall Street, but Europe and Asia.

• - August 9, 2007: French investment bank BNP Paribas announced that it will not be able to take money from two of its funds, as it could not value the assets in them, due to a lack of liquidity in the banking market.[17]​[18]​ It is the first sign that banks are refusing to do business with each other.[19]​ The European Central Bank introduced €95 billion into the banking market to try to improve liquidity. and to restore confidence.[20]​[21]​ The FED injected 24 billion dollars (17.4 billion euros).[22]​[23]​[24]​ In the coming days, the ECB and the FED injected another million dollars.[25]​[26]​[27]​[28]​ The Bank of Japan, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Canada take action similar.[29]​[30]​ The world stock markets collapsed.[31]​ However, as the injections took place during the following days, calm was brought to the stock markets.[32]​.

• - August 16: The European Commission announced that it will investigate risk rating agencies for not having reacted to alert investors about the risks of investing in subprime mortgage-backed securities.[33][34]​.

• - August 17: The FED cut the rate at which it lends to banks by half a percentage point, to 5.75%, and warned that the lack of credit could be a risk for economic growth.[35]​[36][37]​.

September 2007

The crisis that was initially thought to be mere liquidity problems of the banks materialized. These problems were gradually transferred to Europe, where numerous important banks began to admit that they were 'contaminated' with these junk loans. The most famous case was that of Northern Rock, which became the first entity in the United Kingdom to be rescued by the Bank of England due to liquidity problems.

• - September 3: The German lending company IKB") announced losses amounting to 1 billion dollars, from investments linked to investors participating in the subprime market.[38]​ President Bush announces that he is going to rescue the evicted owners.[39]​.

• - September 4: The rate at which banks lend to each other has risen to its highest level since December 1998. Libor is 6.7975%, well above the Bank of England rate at 5.75%. The banks doubted that other banks would survive, or they urgently needed money themselves. The ECB was ready for a new injection of liquidity. The Federal Reserve injected $5 billion into the US monetary system.

• - September 6: The OECD lowered growth forecasts for the G-7 countries and noted that the mortgage crisis "may be a stronger slowing factor than estimated."[40]​[41]​ The ECB maintained eurozone interest rates at 4% and injected another 42,245 million into the market.[42]​.

• - September 7: The Mortgage Bankers Association") announced that mortgage defaults in the US had reached the highest level in half a century.[43]​ The FED injected $2 billion into the monetary system. The ECB kept interest rates at 4% to cool the financial market crisis.

• - September 13: Northern Rock, a bank in Great Britain, made public its major liquidity problems due to the subprime crisis. The bank sought and obtained emergency financial support from the Bank of England, which acted as lender of last resort. Northern Rock relied heavily on the markets, rather than its customers' deposits, to fund its mortgage loans. The beginning of the credit shortage restricted its financing.[44][45]​ The FED injected 21 billion more dollars into the monetary system.

• - September 14: The Bank of England granted an emergency loan to the bank to avoid bankruptcy. Panicked customers rushed to withdraw their savings.[46] Depositors withdrew £1 billion in the biggest move at a British bank for more than a century. They continued to withdraw their money until the Government took measures to guarantee their savings. The bank's clients withdrew almost three billion euros over the weekend. Three days later, the government announced that it would guarantee all deposits.[47] The former president of the United States Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan acknowledged that he failed to foresee the mortgage financing crisis.

• - September 17: Alan Greenspan, former president of the FED, predicted that the drop in housing prices in North America "is going to be larger than most people expect" and will be around 10%.[48][49]​.

• - September 18: The US Federal Reserve reduced its interest rates by half a percentage point to 4.75%.[50]​[51]​[52]​.

• - September 20: US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson considered allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to temporarily purchase the largest loans they can then afford. The Federal Reserve injected $29 billion.

• - September 27: The Federal Reserve (FED) of the United States injected a total of 38 billion dollars into the monetary system, through the purchase of debt in the hands of other financial entities.[53]​[54]​.

October 2007

Several major banks announced a significant devaluation of subprime-related assets. However, stock market indices rose again: certain investors thought that the crisis was over.

• - October 1: Swiss bank UBS was the first major bank to announce losses (4 billion Swiss francs or $3.4 billion) due to subprime-related investments.[55]​[56]​ The bank's president and chief executive resigned.[57]​[58]​ Later, Citigroup bank reported a $3.1 billion subprime-related loss and a drop of 60% of its profits in the third quarter.[59][60]​ The FED injected another 3,886 million into the banking system.[61]​.

• - October 4: The ECB decided to maintain the guideline rates at 4%.[62][63]​.

• - October 5: The investment bank Merrill Lynch announced that it will have to assume a loss of $5.5 billion due to bad investments related to subprime mortgages in the United States real estate market.[64][65]​.

• - October 10: U.S. Treasury Department Chief Henry Paulson announced a new mortgage industry coalition aimed at helping prevent home foreclosures.

• - October 11: The US House of Representatives and Senate reached a compromise on legislation that authorized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to increase mortgage loans by the current ten percent limit. The Bush administration rejected that idea.

• - October 15: The three largest banks in the United States, Citigroup Inc, Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co, announced a plan organized by the Treasury Department to buy securities.[66][67]​.

• - October 24: Merrill Lynch posted a net loss of $2.24 billion for the third quarter, the first in six years, due to the writedown of assets worth $7.9 billion.[68]​[69][70]​.

• - October 30: Stanley O'Neal"), the president of Merrill Lynch, later assumed that the investment bank had $7.9 billion in loans whose debtors were insolvent.[71][72][73][74]​.

• - October 31: The FED, the US Central Bank, lowered the key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, leaving it at 4.5%. This was the second reduction of the year in the interest rate, which was intended to calm the nervousness that the mortgage crisis had caused.[75]​[76]​.

November 2007

The subprime crisis became a liquidity crisis, despite the reaction capacity of the world's main central banks.[77]​.

• - November 1: Wall Street and European stocks fell again after bad news about Citigroup had revived investor concerns about the impact of the lack of credit.[78][79]​.

• - November 4: Citigroup announced the resignation of its boss Charles Prince").[80]​ In addition, the bank announced new losses, which led to the collapse of Wall Street.[81][82]​.

• - November 9: Wachovia, the fourth largest financial institution in the US, becomes the latest bank to sound the alarm by announcing losses of around $1.1 billion in October.[83]​ British banking plummeted on the stock market due to fear of contagion from the crisis.

• - November 12: The three largest US banks, Citigroup, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase, agreed on a plan to reactivate the local credit market, hit by the crisis in the mortgage sector.[84]​.

• - November 15: A new accounting standard was applied in the United States. The FED injected $47.25 billion into the banking system. The British Barclays announced a depreciation of its subprime-related assets worth 1,300 million pounds (1,818 million euros).[85]​[86][87]​.

• - November 19: The New York Stock Exchange closed lower and the Dow Jones fell more than 210 points (1.66 percent), dragged down by the decline in Citigroup shares.[88]​ In addition, the Swiss insurer Swiss Re announced losses of 1.2 billion Swiss francs (733 million euros), related to the collapse of the subprime mortgage sector in the United States.[89]​.

• - November 27: The American bank Citigroup sold 4.9% of its capital to the emirate Abu Dhabi for a total of 7,500 million dollars (5,053 million euros).[90][91]​.

• - November 29: The Bank of England revealed that the number of mortgage approvals had fallen close to a three-year record.[92]​.

• - November 28: Nationwide revealed that UK house prices fell 0.8 percent in November compared to the previous month, their biggest drop in 12 years.[93]​.

• - November 30: The Council for Mortgage Lenders warned about the effects of the credit crunch on the mortgage market, saying that without more funds available in financial markets, mortgage lenders would not be able to offer as many mortgages as before.

December 2007

Banks remained suspicious of lending to other banks. The crisis was revealed as a crisis of confidence and the interbank market was practically closed. No bank lent to another,[94]​ They did not trust each other, so the central banks were forced to continually inject.[95]​ The US economy felt the impact of the subprime and credit crisis. Fears of an economic recession increased.

• - December 6: U.S. President George W. Bush outlined plans to help more than a million homeowners from foreclosure.")[96]​ The Bush administration then announced that it had worked out an agreement to fix interest rates on subprime* mortgages for five years.[97]​[98]​ The Bank of England cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to 5.5%. Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) announced that its exposure to investments linked to subprime mortgages will cost it 1,737 million euros. The Euribor rose to 4.8% following the decision of the European Central Bank (ECB) to maintain interest rates at 4%.[99][100]​.

• - December 11: The FED cut its interest rate by a quarter point to 4.25 percent, the third rate reduction in three months, as the central bank sought to keep the country out of a recession. The reduction came as FED officials signaled that further cuts are possible if a severe housing recession and mortgage lending crisis worsen.[101] UBS provisions 6.825 million.[102][103][104]​

• - December 13: The US FED began a concentrated effort by five major central banks around the world to provide billions of dollars in loans to banks to fight the liquidity crisis. The move manages to temporarily reduce the rate at which banks lend to each other. The ECB, the FED, the BoE, the Bank of Canada and the Swiss National Bank offered ninety billion dollars.[105]​[106]​.

• - December 17: Central banks continued to provide more available funds. The Federal Reserve of the United States auctions 20 billion dollars.[107]​ Another important piece of news worth highlighting was that the Euribor reached its maximum in the last 7 years, reaching 4.9%. This ended up affecting even more consumers who paid variable loans that had already been suffering consecutive increases in recent years.

• - December 18: The European Central Bank helped commercial banks with five hundred billion dollars injected into the financial system. The FED presented new rules for granting mortgage loans.[108]​.

• - December 19: Rating agency Standard and Poor's downgraded its investment rating of several insurers specializing in bond underwriting. There was concern that insurers would not be able to pay, which would have forced banks to announce further large losses. The ECB reduced banking tension with a strong injection of money. The investment bank Morgan Stanley revealed losses of $9 billion associated with the problems in the US real estate market. At the same time, the bank (the second largest investment entity in the US) announced the sale of 10% of its shares to the Chinese government to raise money.[109]​.

January 2008

• - January 7: The G-10 central banks issued a warning, knowing that financial liquidity problems would continue&action=edit&redlink=1 "Liquidity (economy) (not yet written)").[110]​[111]​.

• - January 8: James Cayne"), CEO of Bear Stearns, resigned.[112]​[113]​[114]​.

• - January 9: The UN forecast global economic growth of 3.4% but warned of a clear risk of stagnation&action=edit&redlink=1 "Stagnation (economy) (not yet written)"). In addition, he warned that global economic growth would be slower in 2008, as credit shortages affected richer nations.[115][116]​.

• - January 10: FED Chairman Ben Bernanke pledged to lower interest rates once again to prevent credit and housing problems from leading the country into a recession. Citigroup and Merrill Lynch negotiated to once again receive injections of external capital[117][118] Bank of America reached an agreement to purchase Countrywide Financial") for $4 billion (2707 million euros) in shares.[119][120][121]​.

• - January 15: Citigroup cut its annual profit by 83% after losing 6.6 billion in the fourth quarter.[122]​.

• - January 16: IndyMac") announced that it will cut 2,403 jobs and close some regional operations centers in the United States.[123]​.

• - January 17: Merrill Lynch announced a loss of $7.7 billion in the fourth quarter.[124]​[125][126]​.

• - January 18: Lehman Brothers cut 1,300 jobs and substantially reduced its mortgage business in the US.[127]​ In addition to that, George W. Bush announced a plan to save the $145 billion economy.[128]​ Bernanke stated that "the US economy needs quick and temporary fiscal stimulus."[129]​ Global stock markets continued to fall.

• - January 21: World stock markets suffered their biggest falls since September 11, 2001. The recovery plan proposed by the United States was considered disappointing by investors. The Ibex 35 suffered the biggest drop in its history, falling approximately 7.54%.[130]​.

• - January 22: The United States Federal Reserve cut rates by three-quarters of a percentage point to 3.5% (its largest cut in 25 years), to try to prevent the US economy from entering recession. It was the first emergency rate cut since 2001. Stock markets around the world began to recover from the previous day's heavy losses.[131]​.

• - January 23: The president of the ECB, Jean-Claude Trichet, stated "that his biggest concern is inflation" and refused to raise interest rates.[132]​ Stock markets continued to fall.

• - January 24: Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress reached an agreement on tax breaks of between $300 and $1,200 per household and negotiated tax cuts to revive the economy.

• - January 28: The main Asian stock indices closed with falls of up to 7%.[133]​ The Belgian-Dutch bank Fortis will face a cut of about 1 billion euros in its profits this year.[134]​.

• - January 29: The US House of Representatives approved a $146 billion package of taxpayer aid. Furthermore, the IMF recognized that the financial turbulence would severely affect the real economy and lowered the global growth forecast by 0.8 tenths to 4.1%.[135] The G-8 leaders meeting in London asked for more rigor and coordination from the authorities of the financial system and reaffirmed their confidence in the strength of the continent's economy.

• - January 30: The FED cut the interest rate for the second time in just over a week, by 0.50 points.[136]​ The FBI investigated 14 companies for fraud or influence peddling in relation to subprime loans.[137]​[138]​[139]​ UBS reported that it closed 2007 with net losses of around 4.4 billion Swiss francs. (about 2,726 million euros).[140]​[141]​[142]​.

February 2008

150 million dollars were injected by the main banks, with the purpose of saving the North American economy. The stock markets managed to recover from the falls they suffered in the month of January.

• - February 7: FED Chairman Ben Bernanke expressed concern about insurers. The ECB managed to keep rates at 4% and the IMF applauded the decision.[143] The Bank of England later cut interest rates by a quarter point to 5.25%. The US Congress passed an economic stimulus bill and the White House said President Bush would sign it into law.

• - February 10: G7 group leaders of industrialized nations around the world announced that losses resulting from the collapse of the US mortgage market could cost as much as $400 billion. The G-7 predicted a more gloomy economic outlook for 2008, with a global slowdown and persistence of stock market tensions, and announced that it is willing to act to stabilize world stock markets.[144]​.

• - February 11: Bank of America bought Countrywide"), the US mortgage leader. AIG announced new problems and recovered from its previous losses, suffered in December 2007, but, despite everything, its stock market value fell.

• - February 12: "Project Lifeline" was announced by the Bush administration. It was supposedly intended to cover people with all types of mortgages, not just subprime loans. Later, the Federal Reserve auctioned another $30 billion to commercial banks.[145]​ The Dow Jones rises 1%, following Warren Buffett's announcement that he will bail out insurance companies. bonds.[146]​[147]​[148]​.

• - February 14: US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke stated that his country's economic prospects "have deteriorated" and added that "there is the possibility of a worse deterioration than expected."[149]​[150]​ UBS confirms that it has lost 12,451 million Swiss francs in 2007.[151]​ On April 1, it announces further losses.[152]​.

• - February 17: The British government decided to nationalize for an indefinite period of time the Northern Rock bank, which had requested an emergency loan from the Bank of England a few months earlier to escape bankruptcy.[153][154]​.

• - February 19: The Swiss entity Credit Suisse and the British Barclays confirmed losses.

• - February 25: US home prices fell 8.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007, the largest drop recorded in the last 20 years, Standard & Poor's reported.[155]​.

• - February 26: The Royal Bank of Scotland announced that it lost £1.5 billion due to the credit crisis.[156]​.

• - February 29: The German stock market supervisory body assessed the losses caused by the subprime crises at a total of $430 billion.[157]​.

March 2008

• - March 3: The Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke called on lenders to help homeowners in difficulty by reducing the rates on their loans. He said housing evictions were likely to continue to increase even though the government and the housing industry had begun to help that sector.[158][159]​.

• - March 5: The French bank Crédit Agricole had had to accept a depreciation of assets of 3,300 million euros in the fourth quarter of 2007 due to the effect of the international financial crisis, which reduced its annual profit by 16.8% to 4,044 million euros.[160]​[161][162]​.

• - March 6: The Mortgage Bankers Association") said that expulsions had reached a record level in the last quarter of 2007.[163]​[164]​[165]​ Wall Street drops 1.75%.

• - March 7: In its largest intervention, the US Federal Reserve injected $200 billion of funds available to banks and other institutions to try to improve liquidity in the markets. Fortis announced an annual net profit in 2007 close to 4 billion euros, 8% lower than that recorded a year earlier.[166]​.

• - March 11: Central banks made another coordinated attempt to ease conditions in credit markets, with $200 billion in aid. The FED injected 188 billion euros in Treasury securities into a restricted group of large banks in four days. The ECB opened a credit line of 15 billion euros for commercial banks. The central banks of the United Kingdom, Canada and Switzerland also participated.[167][168]​.

• - March 14: The FED granted an emergency loan to Bear Stearns, which would be bought by JP Morgan.[169]​ The US Treasury Department presents a battery of recommendations to strengthen controls in the credit market.[170]​ Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warns that the real estate crisis has spread beyond subprime mortgages and has promised that the institution will help homeowners affected.[171]​.

• - March 15: The United States Federal Reserve again helped Wall Street investment institutions to prevent the spread of a credit crisis.[172]​.

• - March 16: JP Morgan Chase announced the acquisition of the investment bank Bear Stearns (399 billion dollars of assets) at a price of 236 million dollars (150 million euros) and with the financial help of the FED, which lent 30 billion dollars (19.05 billion euros).[173]​[174]​ Bear Stearns shares decreased by 83%. %. The announced price for the acquisition of Bear Stearns was $2 per share, 1% of its value before the crisis.[175][176][177]​.

• - March 18: The FED reduces rates by 0.75% to 2.25%.[178]​ The Euribor reaches 4.647%.[179]​[180]​[181]​.

• - March 20: Credit Suisse had to face a greater amount of losses.[182]​ It confirms these losses on April 24.[183]​.

April 2008

• - April 2: Bernanke acknowledged that the US economy could enter a recession.[185]​.

• - April 8: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that the potential losses from the lack of credit could reach one trillion dollars (about 600,000 million euros) and could even be higher than this sum.[186]​[187]​ It says that the effects are spreading from mortgages of assets to other sectors, such as commercial property, consumer credit, corporate debts.[188]​ It calls on governments to act to avoid banking crises. On the same day, the Federal Reserve and the ECB inject another 41.5 billion. It is the sixth joint intervention to alleviate the liquidity crisis. The Federal Reserve's liquidity injection is the ninth since the beginning of December for a total amount of $310 billion (€197.5 billion).

• - April 10: The Bank of England cut interest rates by a quarter point to 5% and Germany closed WeserBank. The US Senate later approved a measure aimed at boosting the housing market and reducing the threat of foreclosures. The White House opposed the measure, saying the problem could be worse.

• - April 11: The G-7 approved a battery of measures to prevent crises and requested the review of some of the rules that regulate financial markets worldwide to respond to the crisis.[189]​.

• - April 15: Wachovia, the fourth US entity, announced that it will increase capital by 7,000 million.[190]​.

• - April 16: JPMorgan announced that its profits fell by half in the first quarter of 2007.[191]​[192]​[193]​ Merrill Lynch announced losses of $9 billion in the first quarter of 2008.[194]​[195]​ Citigroup announces losses for the first quarter of the year.[196]​[197]​ On April 21 April, Bank of America announces that its profits were reduced by 77% compared to those recorded last year.[198]​.

• - April 20: The Bank of England announced the details of an ambitious £50 billion plan designed to help credit banks by allowing them to swap risky mortgage debt with government bonds.[199]​ The IMF put European exposure to subprime at £176 billion.[200]​ The body says the ECB could afford a more relaxed policy on interest rates. interest.[201]​[202]​.

• - April 21: Bank of Scotland announced a plan to raise money from its shareholders. The bank also transmitted a notice whose purpose was to report a depreciation of its investments by 5.9 billion pounds between April and June.[203] The ECB injects more liquidity to relieve the banks.

• - April 23: It was announced that the granting of mortgages fell to its historical minimum in the United Kingdom.[204]​.

• - April 30: The first annual decline in home prices for 12 years was recorded on this date by Nationwide"). Additionally, the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates to the lowest point in almost four years.[205]​.

• - May 2: The Bank of England indicated that the subprime mortgage crisis has been exaggerated and that bank balance sheets will return to normal in a short time.

• - May 19: Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winner in Economics, declared himself "very pessimistic" about the evolution of the subprime crisis in the US and expressed his doubts about a near end to the turbulence.[206]​.

• - May 21: The Euribor marked an intraday annual maximum of 4.999 percent. On May 23 and 24, the Euribor fell 5%, a level it had not reached since November 2000.[207]​[208]​.

• - May 26: The shares of the Swiss bank UBS plummeted after learning that said European entity could record additional losses.[209]​[210]​[211]​ The British Bankers Association reveals that the number of mortgages approved in April in the United Kingdom was the lowest.[212]​.

• - June 2: Wachovia bank forced the departure of its first executive.[213]​.

• - June 4: The OECD cut its growth forecast for the eurozone economy in 2008, placing it at 1.7%.[214]​ It estimates banking losses due to high-risk 'subprime' loans at 380 billion dollars, about 246 billion euros.[215]​.

• - June 6: The Euribor shot up 0.3 points, the biggest rise in its history in one day.[216]​.

• - June 9: Lehman Brothers announced a loss of $2.8 billion (€1.7 billion) in the second quarter of 2008.

• - June 17: The US Federal Reserve auctioned another $75 billion in loans to banks to help them overcome their credit problems.

• - June 20: The United States launched an investigation against the alleged culprits of the subprime mortgage crisis.[217]​[218][219]​.

• - June 25: Barclays increased its capital by €5.7 billion (£4.5 billion). The Qatar Investment Authority invested £1.7 billion (7.7%).

• - July 1: Bank of America formalized the acquisition of Countrywide Financial") for 2.5 billion. The price in January of 4 billion dollars was revised after the reduction in share prices.[220]​.

• - July 4: The ECB raised interest rates to 4.25%.

• - July 7: European stock markets collapsed due to new fears about subprime.[221]​.

• - July 7 to 12: Freddie Mac shares fell 47% and Fannie Mae shares fell 45%.

• - July 11: A mortgage bailout that would help homeowners avoid foreclosure and get more affordable rates was approved by the US Senate. It included a modernization of the Federal Housing Administration and created stricter controls on mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This plan was rejected by the House of Representatives. Global stock markets stumbled, some suffering declines of between 2% and 3%.

• - July 11: The American mortgage bank IndyMac") went bankrupt. The United States federal authorities intervened.[222]​.

• - July 14: Financial authorities decided to help the two largest lenders in the US, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They had five trillion dollars of home loans, so the authorities decided that they should not be allowed to fail. The previous week, there had been panic among investors that it could collapse, causing prices to fall. The objective of the plan was to signal that the government was willing to take all necessary measures to avoid turmoil in the credit market. The same day, the Federal Reserve approved housing rules to give more protection against dangerous practices by lenders. Furthermore, on the same day, the regulator of the New York Stock Exchange suspended trading in the bank's securities.[223]​.

• - July 16: The IMF remained firm in its view, which specified that the subprime crisis would cost 630 billion euros (one trillion dollars). He warned that the pressure on the financial sector would continue.[224][225]​.

• - July 23: The House of Representatives approved the initiative that would boost the housing market. It was aimed at helping 400,000 homeowners facing eviction. It also proposed support for the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The project included 300,000 million to provide more affordable mortgages to homeowners with housing problems.[226]​.

• - July 29: Merrill Lynch sold more than 30 billion assets considered "toxic".[227]​ The IMF warned of the impact of the financial crisis on the real economy.[228]​.

• - July 30: George W. Bush signed the $300 billion real estate rescue plan approved by Congress. This project was the most important in decades. The measure allowed homeowners who cannot refinance to have more affordable, government-backed payments instead of losing their homes. More than 400,000 struggling homeowners could benefit from the plan. The maximum limit of mortgages eligible for a public guarantee was increased. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed under the control of a new organization. The Treasury is authorized to buy their shares and lend them money until 2009. The Federal Housing Administration Fund is set up with a budget of $300 billion to help families. They can cancel their loan and replace it with a loan at a fixed rate. The total cost to taxpayers was estimated at $25 billion. The Federal Reserve announced that it would expand emergency lending to Wall Street, and also took other measures to alleviate the lack of credit.[229]​.

• - August 4: The banking giant HSBC announced a 28% drop in its profits for the semester.[230]​.

• - August 10: UBS, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch committed to buying $40 billion of bonds at auction from their clients.

• - August 12: The FED auctioned another $25 billion in loans to U.S. banks, at a rate of 2.754 percent. In the latest auction, the FED says the loans are offered for an extended period of 84 days, instead of the 28-day period for previous loans.

• - August 16: The ECB decided to maintain rates at 4.25%.[231]​.

• - August 19: Global distrust caused stock markets to falter. The Frankfurt stock market fell by 2.34%, the London stock market by 2.38%, the Paris stock market by 2.61%, the Tokyo stock market by 2.28% and the Hong Kong stock market by 2.93%.[232]​.

• - August 22: Bernanke said that the crisis will continue and accentuate its impact on the real economy.

• - August 25: Columbian Bank & Trust became the ninth banking victim in the US.

• - August 26: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation published a "blacklist" of banks, which included those most affected by the crisis.

• - August 29: Integrity Bank") was named the 10th regional U.S. institution candidate for bankruptcy..

September 2008

• - September 7: The Bush administration announced that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were placed under the conservatorship of the United States Treasury, led by Henry Paulson, to allow them to restructure their finances. The Treasury offered guarantees of up to $100 billion to resolve the debts of each of these institutions.[233]​.

• - September 10: Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest American investment bank, announced a $3.9 billion loss for the third quarter.[234]​.

• - September 14: The FED refuses to give its guarantee to Barclays and Bank of America, which were candidates for the acquisition of Lehman Brothers, as JP Morgan Chase has had for Bear Stearns. Lehman Brothers seeks to open bankruptcy proceedings and pursues Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, after failing to obtain help from the FED or find a buyer.

• - September 15: investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. It announced its Chapter 11 placement after the failure of talks with the Federal Reserve to save it.[235] Meanwhile, one of the major American banks, Bank of America, announced the purchase of another Wall Street investment bank, Merrill Lynch, for $50 billion. Ten international banks decided to create a cash fund of 70 billion dollars to meet their most urgent needs, while central banks were opening the doors of credit. This does not prevent a sharp decline in global stock markets.[236]​ The Dow Jones fell to 504.48 points in its worst fall since September 2001 amid the terrorist attacks.[237]​.

• - September 16: The United States Federal Reserve and the de facto US government nationalized the world's largest insurer, AIG (American International Group). They provided assistance of 85 billion dollars (emergency loan) in exchange for 79.9% of the capital. Wall Street rose 1.3%.[238]​.

• - September 17: World stock markets continued to fall and credit is lacking in the financial system. Central banks multiplied operations to provide liquidity to financial institutions. The Dow Jones lost about 450 points or 4.06%, bringing total losses to more than 800 points for the week. Markets around the world shared the crisis of confidence. Russia closes its market after its worst decline since 1998.[239]​ Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs lose, respectively, 26.2% and 13.9%.[240][241]​ It was estimated that the bankruptcy has led to AIG 180 billion in losses for banks and institutions in transactions with AIG.[242]​ The British bank Lloyds TSB bought its rival HBOS, threatened with bankruptcy.[243]​.

• - September 18: The FED, in collaboration with the ECB, the Bank of England and the central banks of Canada and Switzerland, injected $180 billion into the markets to fight against the lack of loans between banks.[244]​.

• - September 19: The U.S. government announced a sweeping bailout plan to improve the financial system, including a program to buy hundreds of billions of dollars of bad mortgages and other forms of toxic debt held by financial companies. President George W. Bush called for "act immediately" on the bailout plan for the banks in order to avoid a worsening of the crisis in the United States.[245] The CAC 40 gained 9.27%.

• - September 20: The US government announced the creation of a fund with 700 billion to buy toxic assets from banks.

• - September 21: The last two investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley renounced their status and became ordinary banks.

• - September 23: The ECB injected $40 billion into the euro zone as part of joint measures with the FED to calm the markets. The debates at the United Nations General Assembly in New York were at that time dominated by the financial crisis.

• - September 24: Warren Buffett, through Berkshire Hathaway, announced plans to invest at least $5 million in Goldman Sachs. It was confirmed that the FBI had launched an investigation in the US into financial markets. The SEC advanced its investigation and more than twenty accused hedge funds were named there.

• - September 25: Washington Mutual Inc, one of the largest banks in the country, collapsed due to all the mistakes it made in the mortgage market. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.") then sold the bank's assets to JPMorgan Chase & Co for $1.9 billion. With $307 billion in assets, it is the largest bank in US history on its way to failure. JP Morgan Chase thus became the first deposit bank, with a total value of $911 billion, ahead of Citigroup and Bank of America. The latter becomes the second bank with the largest number of employees. (5,410) behind that of Bank of America. Meanwhile, in Washington D.C., members of the United States Congress sought an agreement on an outline of an urgent plan to avoid the crisis, but Republican members opposed the plan and made a proposal for an alternative plan. The then presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain joined the negotiations, and at the end of the day, McCain ended up supporting the alternative plan. the effects of the crisis. A rethinking of the international financial system was advocated.[247]​.

• - September 26: The share price of the Belgian-Dutch bank and insurer Fortis collapsed due to doubts about its solvency. Of course, in addition to that, Citigroup bought Wachovia on that day and it became the first bank deposit.

• - September 27: The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail reported that British bank Bradford and Bingley (B&B), hit by the property crisis, could be nationalised.

• - September 28: The three Benelux states Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg announced a bailout of the Fortis bank. 11.2 billion dollars were injected, partially nationalizing the bank. Later, The New York Times indicated that AIG's bankruptcy would cost Goldman Sachs $20 million. Later, they realized that the US bailout plan was subject to an agreement between the Bush administration and congressional leaders.

• - September 29: The German real estate financial consortium Hypo Real Estate was rescued with an aid plan of 35 billion euros. Furthermore, the Bradford and Bingley bank is saved from bankruptcy by the Spanish bank Santander and the British government.

• - September 29: The $700 billion bailout plan was rejected by the United States House of Representatives. Wall Street collapsed and lost almost 780 points (7%).[248]​ Earlier that same day, interest rates continued to rise, preventing banks from refinancing. Later, the bank Citigroup announced that it took control of its rival Wachovia with the help of federal authorities.

• - September 30: The Franco-Belgian bank Dexia was nationalized. The French government provided 1 billion euros, under a rescue plan totaling 6.4 billion euros. The two group leaders resigned. The CAC 40 fell by 1.99%. The other stock markets rose. A second version of the American rescue plan began to be debated. In addition, the Irish government decided to guarantee all the deposits of the country's six largest banks with 400 billion euros.[249]​.

October 2008

• - October 1: The North American Senate approved a new version of the financial rescue plan, the Paulson Plan or "Act on the emergency situation of economic stabilization in 2008". The text included new provisions to increase the level of guarantee for deposits between $100,000 and $250,000.

• - October 3: In a final vote, the US House of Representatives approved by 263 votes to 171 the revision of the US$700 billion rescue plan proposed by the Treasury and sent it to President Bush for his signature. George W. Bush described it as vital to weathering the financial storm and signed it into law immediately. Additionally, that day, Fortis was nationalized and Wachovia announced that it would agree to be acquired by Wells Fargo & Co, rather than Citigroup. Wells Fargo announced a merger with Wachovia, despite the exclusivity enjoyed by Citigroup. Wells Fargo considered that the provisions of the law passed by Congress allow it to merge.[250]​.

• - October 4: AIG says it will focus on insurance activities. Later, Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of the European Union, decided to organize an emergency meeting in Paris about the crisis. Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, Gordon Brown and Silvio Berlusconi pledged to support European financial institutions in crisis but did not support the idea of ​​a European fund to support banks. The four European leaders called for the organization of an international summit "as soon as possible" to review the rules of capitalism.

• - October 5: Germany approved a rescue plan for the real estate bank Hypo Real Estate, increased from 35,000 to 50,000 million euros. The German government also announced a full guarantee for private deposits.

• - October 6: The US Federal Reserve and other major central banks around the world slashed interest rates to prevent the financial crisis from becoming a global economic crisis. The Dow Jones suffered its biggest loss during a trading day, closing below 10,000 points for the first time since 2004. Paris recorded the biggest drop on the CAC 40 with a decline of 9.04% to 3,712 points. London fell by 7.85%, Frankfurt, by 7.07% and Zurich"), by 6.12%. Moscow") saw a decrease of 19%. Furthermore, the press announced a planned merger between the Caisse d'Epargne and Banque Populaire.

• - October 7: European Union finance ministers meeting in Luxembourg reached an agreement on the principles of possible rescue plans for banks and insurance companies in crisis, but did not reach an agreement on the establishment of a European fund. The guarantee for bank deposits was increased from 20,000 to 50,000 euros. It was about 70,000 euros in France. Spain, which had not been invited to the meeting on October 4, launched its own plan to deal with the financial crisis. In addition, Iceland's Prime Minister Geir Haarde warned that it was experiencing a and assumed control over the banking system.

November 2008

• - November 4: The Dow Jones gained 305 points, its highest gain in four weeks.

• - November 5: Volatility returned to Wall Street after the presidential election. The Dow Jones lost 486 points.

• - November 6: Wall Street collapsed for the second day, while data about the economic situation caused fears.

• - November 9: China announced a relaunch plan of 455 billion euros.

• - November 15: The G20 met in Washington to find an action plan. The objective was to find the bases for a reform of the global financial system.

• - November 19: The Dow Jones fell approximately 427 points to close below 8000. Auto stocks fell and favored the Washington stock market.[253]​.

• - Subprime mortgage crisis.

• - Financial crisis of 2008.

• - Stock market crisis of January 2008.

• - Liquidity crisis of September 2008.

• - October 2008 global stock market crisis.

• - Great Recession.

Note: the vast majority of references were consulted during 2008 and others, at the beginning of 2009.

Additional sources

• - American Treasury.

• - Wall Street investments.

• - American Federal Reserve.

• - IMF.

• - Early 2007: After a period of two years; That is, between 2004 and 2006, when the US raised interest rates from 1% to 5.35%, US housing markets began to suffer from falling prices and an increase in homeowners who had been unable to repay their mortgages. The proportion of subprime loans that were repaid; That is, subprime loans to customers with poor or no credit history increased to record levels.

• - February: Defaults in payments on subprime loans (mortgage credit to weak borrowers) increased in the United States and caused the first bankruptcies of specialized banks. The FED estimated the losses at fifty million dollars.

• - February 8: HSBC launched a profit warning, (in Spanish the closest translation of this term is profit alert) announcing that it had lost ten billion dollars, due to high-risk real estate loans that were not paid.

• - March 14: The Association of Mortgage Bankers") revealed that the number of defaults in the mortgage sector in the US (about six million contracts for $600 billion) reached its highest point in seven years.[13]​.

• - April: Credit losses associated with subprime were quite significant. Some estimate them between 50,000 and 100,000 million dollars.

• - April 2: New Century Financial"), which specializes in subprime mortgages, followed the United States' Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and cutbacks on half of its workforce. The downturn in the subprime market began to have an impact on banks around the world.[14]​.

• - July: The crisis began to develop and spread in the world. The stock markets began to waver. FED Chairman Ben Bernanke has warned that the US suppression crisis could cost up to $100bn (£50bn). Due to failed speculations in the North American real estate market, several German banks such as Mittelstandsbank IKB), Sachsen LB, WestLB and BayernLB went into crisis.[15]​.

• - July 18: Investment bank Bear Stearns announced that it will not receive money from its investments in two of its hedge funds after the other banks refused to help them. Some of the European stock markets fell: the CAC40 lost 1.69% and was down approximately 6000 points. In London, the Footsie index lost 1.38% to 6,567 points.

• - July 19: In New York, the Dow Jones broke a record by more than 14,000 points, and in the stock markets everything was full of euphoria "Euphoria (state)"). The FED estimated losses from subprime mortgages at up to 72 billion euros.[16]​.

• - July 26: Wall Street lost 2.26%, the London Stock Exchange, 3.15%, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, 2.39%, the Paris Stock Exchange 2.78% and finally, the Tokyo Stock Exchange lost 2.36% the next day.

• - August 1: European stock markets lost 2%. In Australia, Macquarie Bank") had expected losses of up to $258 million for two of its funds. In the US, American Home Mortgage"), a mortgage finance company, was unable to pay $300 million it owed.

• - August 6: American Home Mortgage"), Home Bank") and First Magnus Financial") went bankrupt. The German investment company Frankfurt Trust") froze the operation of one of its funds. In the morning, the FED left its rate unchanged, saying that "credit problems and the housing slump pose growing risks to the US economy."

August 2007

The banks distrusted each other and did not lend more money; or they only did so with extreme reluctance and at very high rates. The central banks (Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of Japan, Bank of England) intervened massively and made available to the banks (in the form of loans) more than 400 billion euros in cash (dollars, pounds "Pound (currency)", euros or yen). The market fears then spread to all credit operations. The share value of funds involved in real estate lending (including subprime, but also lending to creditworthy borrowers) collapsed. The value of the shares of the banking groups as well. To offset their losses in these markets, large investors began selling stocks in other sectors. These sales led to an overall decline in stock prices. Panic spread. The monetary crisis had become a stock market crisis that concerned not only Wall Street, but Europe and Asia.

• - August 9, 2007: French investment bank BNP Paribas announced that it will not be able to take money from two of its funds, as it could not value the assets in them, due to a lack of liquidity in the banking market.[17]​[18]​ It is the first sign that banks are refusing to do business with each other.[19]​ The European Central Bank introduced €95 billion into the banking market to try to improve liquidity. and to restore confidence.[20]​[21]​ The FED injected 24 billion dollars (17.4 billion euros).[22]​[23]​[24]​ In the coming days, the ECB and the FED injected another million dollars.[25]​[26]​[27]​[28]​ The Bank of Japan, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Canada take action similar.[29]​[30]​ The world stock markets collapsed.[31]​ However, as the injections took place during the following days, calm was brought to the stock markets.[32]​.

• - August 16: The European Commission announced that it will investigate risk rating agencies for not having reacted to alert investors about the risks of investing in subprime mortgage-backed securities.[33][34]​.

• - August 17: The FED cut the rate at which it lends to banks by half a percentage point, to 5.75%, and warned that the lack of credit could be a risk for economic growth.[35]​[36][37]​.

September 2007

The crisis that was initially thought to be mere liquidity problems of the banks materialized. These problems were gradually transferred to Europe, where numerous important banks began to admit that they were 'contaminated' with these junk loans. The most famous case was that of Northern Rock, which became the first entity in the United Kingdom to be rescued by the Bank of England due to liquidity problems.

• - September 3: The German lending company IKB") announced losses amounting to 1 billion dollars, from investments linked to investors participating in the subprime market.[38]​ President Bush announces that he is going to rescue the evicted owners.[39]​.

• - September 4: The rate at which banks lend to each other has risen to its highest level since December 1998. Libor is 6.7975%, well above the Bank of England rate at 5.75%. The banks doubted that other banks would survive, or they urgently needed money themselves. The ECB was ready for a new injection of liquidity. The Federal Reserve injected $5 billion into the US monetary system.

• - September 6: The OECD lowered growth forecasts for the G-7 countries and noted that the mortgage crisis "may be a stronger slowing factor than estimated."[40]​[41]​ The ECB maintained eurozone interest rates at 4% and injected another 42,245 million into the market.[42]​.

• - September 7: The Mortgage Bankers Association") announced that mortgage defaults in the US had reached the highest level in half a century.[43]​ The FED injected $2 billion into the monetary system. The ECB kept interest rates at 4% to cool the financial market crisis.

• - September 13: Northern Rock, a bank in Great Britain, made public its major liquidity problems due to the subprime crisis. The bank sought and obtained emergency financial support from the Bank of England, which acted as lender of last resort. Northern Rock relied heavily on the markets, rather than its customers' deposits, to fund its mortgage loans. The beginning of the credit shortage restricted its financing.[44][45]​ The FED injected 21 billion more dollars into the monetary system.

• - September 14: The Bank of England granted an emergency loan to the bank to avoid bankruptcy. Panicked customers rushed to withdraw their savings.[46] Depositors withdrew £1 billion in the biggest move at a British bank for more than a century. They continued to withdraw their money until the Government took measures to guarantee their savings. The bank's clients withdrew almost three billion euros over the weekend. Three days later, the government announced that it would guarantee all deposits.[47] The former president of the United States Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan acknowledged that he failed to foresee the mortgage financing crisis.

• - September 17: Alan Greenspan, former president of the FED, predicted that the drop in housing prices in North America "is going to be larger than most people expect" and will be around 10%.[48][49]​.

• - September 18: The US Federal Reserve reduced its interest rates by half a percentage point to 4.75%.[50]​[51]​[52]​.

• - September 20: US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson considered allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to temporarily purchase the largest loans they can then afford. The Federal Reserve injected $29 billion.

• - September 27: The Federal Reserve (FED) of the United States injected a total of 38 billion dollars into the monetary system, through the purchase of debt in the hands of other financial entities.[53]​[54]​.

October 2007

Several major banks announced a significant devaluation of subprime-related assets. However, stock market indices rose again: certain investors thought that the crisis was over.

• - October 1: Swiss bank UBS was the first major bank to announce losses (4 billion Swiss francs or $3.4 billion) due to subprime-related investments.[55]​[56]​ The bank's president and chief executive resigned.[57]​[58]​ Later, Citigroup bank reported a $3.1 billion subprime-related loss and a drop of 60% of its profits in the third quarter.[59][60]​ The FED injected another 3,886 million into the banking system.[61]​.

• - October 4: The ECB decided to maintain the guideline rates at 4%.[62][63]​.

• - October 5: The investment bank Merrill Lynch announced that it will have to assume a loss of $5.5 billion due to bad investments related to subprime mortgages in the United States real estate market.[64][65]​.

• - October 10: U.S. Treasury Department Chief Henry Paulson announced a new mortgage industry coalition aimed at helping prevent home foreclosures.

• - October 11: The US House of Representatives and Senate reached a compromise on legislation that authorized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to increase mortgage loans by the current ten percent limit. The Bush administration rejected that idea.

• - October 15: The three largest banks in the United States, Citigroup Inc, Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co, announced a plan organized by the Treasury Department to buy securities.[66][67]​.

• - October 24: Merrill Lynch posted a net loss of $2.24 billion for the third quarter, the first in six years, due to the writedown of assets worth $7.9 billion.[68]​[69][70]​.

• - October 30: Stanley O'Neal"), the president of Merrill Lynch, later assumed that the investment bank had $7.9 billion in loans whose debtors were insolvent.[71][72][73][74]​.

• - October 31: The FED, the US Central Bank, lowered the key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, leaving it at 4.5%. This was the second reduction of the year in the interest rate, which was intended to calm the nervousness that the mortgage crisis had caused.[75]​[76]​.

November 2007

The subprime crisis became a liquidity crisis, despite the reaction capacity of the world's main central banks.[77]​.

• - November 1: Wall Street and European stocks fell again after bad news about Citigroup had revived investor concerns about the impact of the lack of credit.[78][79]​.

• - November 4: Citigroup announced the resignation of its boss Charles Prince").[80]​ In addition, the bank announced new losses, which led to the collapse of Wall Street.[81][82]​.

• - November 9: Wachovia, the fourth largest financial institution in the US, becomes the latest bank to sound the alarm by announcing losses of around $1.1 billion in October.[83]​ British banking plummeted on the stock market due to fear of contagion from the crisis.

• - November 12: The three largest US banks, Citigroup, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase, agreed on a plan to reactivate the local credit market, hit by the crisis in the mortgage sector.[84]​.

• - November 15: A new accounting standard was applied in the United States. The FED injected $47.25 billion into the banking system. The British Barclays announced a depreciation of its subprime-related assets worth 1,300 million pounds (1,818 million euros).[85]​[86][87]​.

• - November 19: The New York Stock Exchange closed lower and the Dow Jones fell more than 210 points (1.66 percent), dragged down by the decline in Citigroup shares.[88]​ In addition, the Swiss insurer Swiss Re announced losses of 1.2 billion Swiss francs (733 million euros), related to the collapse of the subprime mortgage sector in the United States.[89]​.

• - November 27: The American bank Citigroup sold 4.9% of its capital to the emirate Abu Dhabi for a total of 7,500 million dollars (5,053 million euros).[90][91]​.

• - November 29: The Bank of England revealed that the number of mortgage approvals had fallen close to a three-year record.[92]​.

• - November 28: Nationwide revealed that UK house prices fell 0.8 percent in November compared to the previous month, their biggest drop in 12 years.[93]​.

• - November 30: The Council for Mortgage Lenders warned about the effects of the credit crunch on the mortgage market, saying that without more funds available in financial markets, mortgage lenders would not be able to offer as many mortgages as before.

December 2007

Banks remained suspicious of lending to other banks. The crisis was revealed as a crisis of confidence and the interbank market was practically closed. No bank lent to another,[94]​ They did not trust each other, so the central banks were forced to continually inject.[95]​ The US economy felt the impact of the subprime and credit crisis. Fears of an economic recession increased.

• - December 6: U.S. President George W. Bush outlined plans to help more than a million homeowners from foreclosure.")[96]​ The Bush administration then announced that it had worked out an agreement to fix interest rates on subprime* mortgages for five years.[97]​[98]​ The Bank of England cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to 5.5%. Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) announced that its exposure to investments linked to subprime mortgages will cost it 1,737 million euros. The Euribor rose to 4.8% following the decision of the European Central Bank (ECB) to maintain interest rates at 4%.[99][100]​.

• - December 11: The FED cut its interest rate by a quarter point to 4.25 percent, the third rate reduction in three months, as the central bank sought to keep the country out of a recession. The reduction came as FED officials signaled that further cuts are possible if a severe housing recession and mortgage lending crisis worsen.[101] UBS provisions 6.825 million.[102][103][104]​

• - December 13: The US FED began a concentrated effort by five major central banks around the world to provide billions of dollars in loans to banks to fight the liquidity crisis. The move manages to temporarily reduce the rate at which banks lend to each other. The ECB, the FED, the BoE, the Bank of Canada and the Swiss National Bank offered ninety billion dollars.[105]​[106]​.

• - December 17: Central banks continued to provide more available funds. The Federal Reserve of the United States auctions 20 billion dollars.[107]​ Another important piece of news worth highlighting was that the Euribor reached its maximum in the last 7 years, reaching 4.9%. This ended up affecting even more consumers who paid variable loans that had already been suffering consecutive increases in recent years.

• - December 18: The European Central Bank helped commercial banks with five hundred billion dollars injected into the financial system. The FED presented new rules for granting mortgage loans.[108]​.

• - December 19: Rating agency Standard and Poor's downgraded its investment rating of several insurers specializing in bond underwriting. There was concern that insurers would not be able to pay, which would have forced banks to announce further large losses. The ECB reduced banking tension with a strong injection of money. The investment bank Morgan Stanley revealed losses of $9 billion associated with the problems in the US real estate market. At the same time, the bank (the second largest investment entity in the US) announced the sale of 10% of its shares to the Chinese government to raise money.[109]​.

January 2008

• - January 7: The G-10 central banks issued a warning, knowing that financial liquidity problems would continue&action=edit&redlink=1 "Liquidity (economy) (not yet written)").[110]​[111]​.

• - January 8: James Cayne"), CEO of Bear Stearns, resigned.[112]​[113]​[114]​.

• - January 9: The UN forecast global economic growth of 3.4% but warned of a clear risk of stagnation&action=edit&redlink=1 "Stagnation (economy) (not yet written)"). In addition, he warned that global economic growth would be slower in 2008, as credit shortages affected richer nations.[115][116]​.

• - January 10: FED Chairman Ben Bernanke pledged to lower interest rates once again to prevent credit and housing problems from leading the country into a recession. Citigroup and Merrill Lynch negotiated to once again receive injections of external capital[117][118] Bank of America reached an agreement to purchase Countrywide Financial") for $4 billion (2707 million euros) in shares.[119][120][121]​.

• - January 15: Citigroup cut its annual profit by 83% after losing 6.6 billion in the fourth quarter.[122]​.

• - January 16: IndyMac") announced that it will cut 2,403 jobs and close some regional operations centers in the United States.[123]​.

• - January 17: Merrill Lynch announced a loss of $7.7 billion in the fourth quarter.[124]​[125][126]​.

• - January 18: Lehman Brothers cut 1,300 jobs and substantially reduced its mortgage business in the US.[127]​ In addition to that, George W. Bush announced a plan to save the $145 billion economy.[128]​ Bernanke stated that "the US economy needs quick and temporary fiscal stimulus."[129]​ Global stock markets continued to fall.

• - January 21: World stock markets suffered their biggest falls since September 11, 2001. The recovery plan proposed by the United States was considered disappointing by investors. The Ibex 35 suffered the biggest drop in its history, falling approximately 7.54%.[130]​.

• - January 22: The United States Federal Reserve cut rates by three-quarters of a percentage point to 3.5% (its largest cut in 25 years), to try to prevent the US economy from entering recession. It was the first emergency rate cut since 2001. Stock markets around the world began to recover from the previous day's heavy losses.[131]​.

• - January 23: The president of the ECB, Jean-Claude Trichet, stated "that his biggest concern is inflation" and refused to raise interest rates.[132]​ Stock markets continued to fall.

• - January 24: Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress reached an agreement on tax breaks of between $300 and $1,200 per household and negotiated tax cuts to revive the economy.

• - January 28: The main Asian stock indices closed with falls of up to 7%.[133]​ The Belgian-Dutch bank Fortis will face a cut of about 1 billion euros in its profits this year.[134]​.

• - January 29: The US House of Representatives approved a $146 billion package of taxpayer aid. Furthermore, the IMF recognized that the financial turbulence would severely affect the real economy and lowered the global growth forecast by 0.8 tenths to 4.1%.[135] The G-8 leaders meeting in London asked for more rigor and coordination from the authorities of the financial system and reaffirmed their confidence in the strength of the continent's economy.

• - January 30: The FED cut the interest rate for the second time in just over a week, by 0.50 points.[136]​ The FBI investigated 14 companies for fraud or influence peddling in relation to subprime loans.[137]​[138]​[139]​ UBS reported that it closed 2007 with net losses of around 4.4 billion Swiss francs. (about 2,726 million euros).[140]​[141]​[142]​.

February 2008

150 million dollars were injected by the main banks, with the purpose of saving the North American economy. The stock markets managed to recover from the falls they suffered in the month of January.

• - February 7: FED Chairman Ben Bernanke expressed concern about insurers. The ECB managed to keep rates at 4% and the IMF applauded the decision.[143] The Bank of England later cut interest rates by a quarter point to 5.25%. The US Congress passed an economic stimulus bill and the White House said President Bush would sign it into law.

• - February 10: G7 group leaders of industrialized nations around the world announced that losses resulting from the collapse of the US mortgage market could cost as much as $400 billion. The G-7 predicted a more gloomy economic outlook for 2008, with a global slowdown and persistence of stock market tensions, and announced that it is willing to act to stabilize world stock markets.[144]​.

• - February 11: Bank of America bought Countrywide"), the US mortgage leader. AIG announced new problems and recovered from its previous losses, suffered in December 2007, but, despite everything, its stock market value fell.

• - February 12: "Project Lifeline" was announced by the Bush administration. It was supposedly intended to cover people with all types of mortgages, not just subprime loans. Later, the Federal Reserve auctioned another $30 billion to commercial banks.[145]​ The Dow Jones rises 1%, following Warren Buffett's announcement that he will bail out insurance companies. bonds.[146]​[147]​[148]​.

• - February 14: US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke stated that his country's economic prospects "have deteriorated" and added that "there is the possibility of a worse deterioration than expected."[149]​[150]​ UBS confirms that it has lost 12,451 million Swiss francs in 2007.[151]​ On April 1, it announces further losses.[152]​.

• - February 17: The British government decided to nationalize for an indefinite period of time the Northern Rock bank, which had requested an emergency loan from the Bank of England a few months earlier to escape bankruptcy.[153][154]​.

• - February 19: The Swiss entity Credit Suisse and the British Barclays confirmed losses.

• - February 25: US home prices fell 8.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007, the largest drop recorded in the last 20 years, Standard & Poor's reported.[155]​.

• - February 26: The Royal Bank of Scotland announced that it lost £1.5 billion due to the credit crisis.[156]​.

• - February 29: The German stock market supervisory body assessed the losses caused by the subprime crises at a total of $430 billion.[157]​.

March 2008

• - March 3: The Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke called on lenders to help homeowners in difficulty by reducing the rates on their loans. He said housing evictions were likely to continue to increase even though the government and the housing industry had begun to help that sector.[158][159]​.

• - March 5: The French bank Crédit Agricole had had to accept a depreciation of assets of 3,300 million euros in the fourth quarter of 2007 due to the effect of the international financial crisis, which reduced its annual profit by 16.8% to 4,044 million euros.[160]​[161][162]​.

• - March 6: The Mortgage Bankers Association") said that expulsions had reached a record level in the last quarter of 2007.[163]​[164]​[165]​ Wall Street drops 1.75%.

• - March 7: In its largest intervention, the US Federal Reserve injected $200 billion of funds available to banks and other institutions to try to improve liquidity in the markets. Fortis announced an annual net profit in 2007 close to 4 billion euros, 8% lower than that recorded a year earlier.[166]​.

• - March 11: Central banks made another coordinated attempt to ease conditions in credit markets, with $200 billion in aid. The FED injected 188 billion euros in Treasury securities into a restricted group of large banks in four days. The ECB opened a credit line of 15 billion euros for commercial banks. The central banks of the United Kingdom, Canada and Switzerland also participated.[167][168]​.

• - March 14: The FED granted an emergency loan to Bear Stearns, which would be bought by JP Morgan.[169]​ The US Treasury Department presents a battery of recommendations to strengthen controls in the credit market.[170]​ Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warns that the real estate crisis has spread beyond subprime mortgages and has promised that the institution will help homeowners affected.[171]​.

• - March 15: The United States Federal Reserve again helped Wall Street investment institutions to prevent the spread of a credit crisis.[172]​.

• - March 16: JP Morgan Chase announced the acquisition of the investment bank Bear Stearns (399 billion dollars of assets) at a price of 236 million dollars (150 million euros) and with the financial help of the FED, which lent 30 billion dollars (19.05 billion euros).[173]​[174]​ Bear Stearns shares decreased by 83%. %. The announced price for the acquisition of Bear Stearns was $2 per share, 1% of its value before the crisis.[175][176][177]​.

• - March 18: The FED reduces rates by 0.75% to 2.25%.[178]​ The Euribor reaches 4.647%.[179]​[180]​[181]​.

• - March 20: Credit Suisse had to face a greater amount of losses.[182]​ It confirms these losses on April 24.[183]​.

April 2008

• - April 2: Bernanke acknowledged that the US economy could enter a recession.[185]​.

• - April 8: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that the potential losses from the lack of credit could reach one trillion dollars (about 600,000 million euros) and could even be higher than this sum.[186]​[187]​ It says that the effects are spreading from mortgages of assets to other sectors, such as commercial property, consumer credit, corporate debts.[188]​ It calls on governments to act to avoid banking crises. On the same day, the Federal Reserve and the ECB inject another 41.5 billion. It is the sixth joint intervention to alleviate the liquidity crisis. The Federal Reserve's liquidity injection is the ninth since the beginning of December for a total amount of $310 billion (€197.5 billion).

• - April 10: The Bank of England cut interest rates by a quarter point to 5% and Germany closed WeserBank. The US Senate later approved a measure aimed at boosting the housing market and reducing the threat of foreclosures. The White House opposed the measure, saying the problem could be worse.

• - April 11: The G-7 approved a battery of measures to prevent crises and requested the review of some of the rules that regulate financial markets worldwide to respond to the crisis.[189]​.

• - April 15: Wachovia, the fourth US entity, announced that it will increase capital by 7,000 million.[190]​.

• - April 16: JPMorgan announced that its profits fell by half in the first quarter of 2007.[191]​[192]​[193]​ Merrill Lynch announced losses of $9 billion in the first quarter of 2008.[194]​[195]​ Citigroup announces losses for the first quarter of the year.[196]​[197]​ On April 21 April, Bank of America announces that its profits were reduced by 77% compared to those recorded last year.[198]​.

• - April 20: The Bank of England announced the details of an ambitious £50 billion plan designed to help credit banks by allowing them to swap risky mortgage debt with government bonds.[199]​ The IMF put European exposure to subprime at £176 billion.[200]​ The body says the ECB could afford a more relaxed policy on interest rates. interest.[201]​[202]​.

• - April 21: Bank of Scotland announced a plan to raise money from its shareholders. The bank also transmitted a notice whose purpose was to report a depreciation of its investments by 5.9 billion pounds between April and June.[203] The ECB injects more liquidity to relieve the banks.

• - April 23: It was announced that the granting of mortgages fell to its historical minimum in the United Kingdom.[204]​.

• - April 30: The first annual decline in home prices for 12 years was recorded on this date by Nationwide"). Additionally, the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates to the lowest point in almost four years.[205]​.

• - May 2: The Bank of England indicated that the subprime mortgage crisis has been exaggerated and that bank balance sheets will return to normal in a short time.

• - May 19: Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winner in Economics, declared himself "very pessimistic" about the evolution of the subprime crisis in the US and expressed his doubts about a near end to the turbulence.[206]​.

• - May 21: The Euribor marked an intraday annual maximum of 4.999 percent. On May 23 and 24, the Euribor fell 5%, a level it had not reached since November 2000.[207]​[208]​.

• - May 26: The shares of the Swiss bank UBS plummeted after learning that said European entity could record additional losses.[209]​[210]​[211]​ The British Bankers Association reveals that the number of mortgages approved in April in the United Kingdom was the lowest.[212]​.

• - June 2: Wachovia bank forced the departure of its first executive.[213]​.

• - June 4: The OECD cut its growth forecast for the eurozone economy in 2008, placing it at 1.7%.[214]​ It estimates banking losses due to high-risk 'subprime' loans at 380 billion dollars, about 246 billion euros.[215]​.

• - June 6: The Euribor shot up 0.3 points, the biggest rise in its history in one day.[216]​.

• - June 9: Lehman Brothers announced a loss of $2.8 billion (€1.7 billion) in the second quarter of 2008.

• - June 17: The US Federal Reserve auctioned another $75 billion in loans to banks to help them overcome their credit problems.

• - June 20: The United States launched an investigation against the alleged culprits of the subprime mortgage crisis.[217]​[218][219]​.

• - June 25: Barclays increased its capital by €5.7 billion (£4.5 billion). The Qatar Investment Authority invested £1.7 billion (7.7%).

• - July 1: Bank of America formalized the acquisition of Countrywide Financial") for 2.5 billion. The price in January of 4 billion dollars was revised after the reduction in share prices.[220]​.

• - July 4: The ECB raised interest rates to 4.25%.

• - July 7: European stock markets collapsed due to new fears about subprime.[221]​.

• - July 7 to 12: Freddie Mac shares fell 47% and Fannie Mae shares fell 45%.

• - July 11: A mortgage bailout that would help homeowners avoid foreclosure and get more affordable rates was approved by the US Senate. It included a modernization of the Federal Housing Administration and created stricter controls on mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This plan was rejected by the House of Representatives. Global stock markets stumbled, some suffering declines of between 2% and 3%.

• - July 11: The American mortgage bank IndyMac") went bankrupt. The United States federal authorities intervened.[222]​.

• - July 14: Financial authorities decided to help the two largest lenders in the US, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They had five trillion dollars of home loans, so the authorities decided that they should not be allowed to fail. The previous week, there had been panic among investors that it could collapse, causing prices to fall. The objective of the plan was to signal that the government was willing to take all necessary measures to avoid turmoil in the credit market. The same day, the Federal Reserve approved housing rules to give more protection against dangerous practices by lenders. Furthermore, on the same day, the regulator of the New York Stock Exchange suspended trading in the bank's securities.[223]​.

• - July 16: The IMF remained firm in its view, which specified that the subprime crisis would cost 630 billion euros (one trillion dollars). He warned that the pressure on the financial sector would continue.[224][225]​.

• - July 23: The House of Representatives approved the initiative that would boost the housing market. It was aimed at helping 400,000 homeowners facing eviction. It also proposed support for the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The project included 300,000 million to provide more affordable mortgages to homeowners with housing problems.[226]​.

• - July 29: Merrill Lynch sold more than 30 billion assets considered "toxic".[227]​ The IMF warned of the impact of the financial crisis on the real economy.[228]​.

• - July 30: George W. Bush signed the $300 billion real estate rescue plan approved by Congress. This project was the most important in decades. The measure allowed homeowners who cannot refinance to have more affordable, government-backed payments instead of losing their homes. More than 400,000 struggling homeowners could benefit from the plan. The maximum limit of mortgages eligible for a public guarantee was increased. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed under the control of a new organization. The Treasury is authorized to buy their shares and lend them money until 2009. The Federal Housing Administration Fund is set up with a budget of $300 billion to help families. They can cancel their loan and replace it with a loan at a fixed rate. The total cost to taxpayers was estimated at $25 billion. The Federal Reserve announced that it would expand emergency lending to Wall Street, and also took other measures to alleviate the lack of credit.[229]​.

• - August 4: The banking giant HSBC announced a 28% drop in its profits for the semester.[230]​.

• - August 10: UBS, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch committed to buying $40 billion of bonds at auction from their clients.

• - August 12: The FED auctioned another $25 billion in loans to U.S. banks, at a rate of 2.754 percent. In the latest auction, the FED says the loans are offered for an extended period of 84 days, instead of the 28-day period for previous loans.

• - August 16: The ECB decided to maintain rates at 4.25%.[231]​.

• - August 19: Global distrust caused stock markets to falter. The Frankfurt stock market fell by 2.34%, the London stock market by 2.38%, the Paris stock market by 2.61%, the Tokyo stock market by 2.28% and the Hong Kong stock market by 2.93%.[232]​.

• - August 22: Bernanke said that the crisis will continue and accentuate its impact on the real economy.

• - August 25: Columbian Bank & Trust became the ninth banking victim in the US.

• - August 26: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation published a "blacklist" of banks, which included those most affected by the crisis.

• - August 29: Integrity Bank") was named the 10th regional U.S. institution candidate for bankruptcy..

September 2008

• - September 7: The Bush administration announced that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were placed under the conservatorship of the United States Treasury, led by Henry Paulson, to allow them to restructure their finances. The Treasury offered guarantees of up to $100 billion to resolve the debts of each of these institutions.[233]​.

• - September 10: Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest American investment bank, announced a $3.9 billion loss for the third quarter.[234]​.

• - September 14: The FED refuses to give its guarantee to Barclays and Bank of America, which were candidates for the acquisition of Lehman Brothers, as JP Morgan Chase has had for Bear Stearns. Lehman Brothers seeks to open bankruptcy proceedings and pursues Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, after failing to obtain help from the FED or find a buyer.

• - September 15: investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. It announced its Chapter 11 placement after the failure of talks with the Federal Reserve to save it.[235] Meanwhile, one of the major American banks, Bank of America, announced the purchase of another Wall Street investment bank, Merrill Lynch, for $50 billion. Ten international banks decided to create a cash fund of 70 billion dollars to meet their most urgent needs, while central banks were opening the doors of credit. This does not prevent a sharp decline in global stock markets.[236]​ The Dow Jones fell to 504.48 points in its worst fall since September 2001 amid the terrorist attacks.[237]​.

• - September 16: The United States Federal Reserve and the de facto US government nationalized the world's largest insurer, AIG (American International Group). They provided assistance of 85 billion dollars (emergency loan) in exchange for 79.9% of the capital. Wall Street rose 1.3%.[238]​.

• - September 17: World stock markets continued to fall and credit is lacking in the financial system. Central banks multiplied operations to provide liquidity to financial institutions. The Dow Jones lost about 450 points or 4.06%, bringing total losses to more than 800 points for the week. Markets around the world shared the crisis of confidence. Russia closes its market after its worst decline since 1998.[239]​ Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs lose, respectively, 26.2% and 13.9%.[240][241]​ It was estimated that the bankruptcy has led to AIG 180 billion in losses for banks and institutions in transactions with AIG.[242]​ The British bank Lloyds TSB bought its rival HBOS, threatened with bankruptcy.[243]​.

• - September 18: The FED, in collaboration with the ECB, the Bank of England and the central banks of Canada and Switzerland, injected $180 billion into the markets to fight against the lack of loans between banks.[244]​.

• - September 19: The U.S. government announced a sweeping bailout plan to improve the financial system, including a program to buy hundreds of billions of dollars of bad mortgages and other forms of toxic debt held by financial companies. President George W. Bush called for "act immediately" on the bailout plan for the banks in order to avoid a worsening of the crisis in the United States.[245] The CAC 40 gained 9.27%.

• - September 20: The US government announced the creation of a fund with 700 billion to buy toxic assets from banks.

• - September 21: The last two investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley renounced their status and became ordinary banks.

• - September 23: The ECB injected $40 billion into the euro zone as part of joint measures with the FED to calm the markets. The debates at the United Nations General Assembly in New York were at that time dominated by the financial crisis.

• - September 24: Warren Buffett, through Berkshire Hathaway, announced plans to invest at least $5 million in Goldman Sachs. It was confirmed that the FBI had launched an investigation in the US into financial markets. The SEC advanced its investigation and more than twenty accused hedge funds were named there.

• - September 25: Washington Mutual Inc, one of the largest banks in the country, collapsed due to all the mistakes it made in the mortgage market. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.") then sold the bank's assets to JPMorgan Chase & Co for $1.9 billion. With $307 billion in assets, it is the largest bank in US history on its way to failure. JP Morgan Chase thus became the first deposit bank, with a total value of $911 billion, ahead of Citigroup and Bank of America. The latter becomes the second bank with the largest number of employees. (5,410) behind that of Bank of America. Meanwhile, in Washington D.C., members of the United States Congress sought an agreement on an outline of an urgent plan to avoid the crisis, but Republican members opposed the plan and made a proposal for an alternative plan. The then presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain joined the negotiations, and at the end of the day, McCain ended up supporting the alternative plan. the effects of the crisis. A rethinking of the international financial system was advocated.[247]​.

• - September 26: The share price of the Belgian-Dutch bank and insurer Fortis collapsed due to doubts about its solvency. Of course, in addition to that, Citigroup bought Wachovia on that day and it became the first bank deposit.

• - September 27: The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail reported that British bank Bradford and Bingley (B&B), hit by the property crisis, could be nationalised.

• - September 28: The three Benelux states Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg announced a bailout of the Fortis bank. 11.2 billion dollars were injected, partially nationalizing the bank. Later, The New York Times indicated that AIG's bankruptcy would cost Goldman Sachs $20 million. Later, they realized that the US bailout plan was subject to an agreement between the Bush administration and congressional leaders.

• - September 29: The German real estate financial consortium Hypo Real Estate was rescued with an aid plan of 35 billion euros. Furthermore, the Bradford and Bingley bank is saved from bankruptcy by the Spanish bank Santander and the British government.

• - September 29: The $700 billion bailout plan was rejected by the United States House of Representatives. Wall Street collapsed and lost almost 780 points (7%).[248]​ Earlier that same day, interest rates continued to rise, preventing banks from refinancing. Later, the bank Citigroup announced that it took control of its rival Wachovia with the help of federal authorities.

• - September 30: The Franco-Belgian bank Dexia was nationalized. The French government provided 1 billion euros, under a rescue plan totaling 6.4 billion euros. The two group leaders resigned. The CAC 40 fell by 1.99%. The other stock markets rose. A second version of the American rescue plan began to be debated. In addition, the Irish government decided to guarantee all the deposits of the country's six largest banks with 400 billion euros.[249]​.

October 2008

• - October 1: The North American Senate approved a new version of the financial rescue plan, the Paulson Plan or "Act on the emergency situation of economic stabilization in 2008". The text included new provisions to increase the level of guarantee for deposits between $100,000 and $250,000.

• - October 3: In a final vote, the US House of Representatives approved by 263 votes to 171 the revision of the US$700 billion rescue plan proposed by the Treasury and sent it to President Bush for his signature. George W. Bush described it as vital to weathering the financial storm and signed it into law immediately. Additionally, that day, Fortis was nationalized and Wachovia announced that it would agree to be acquired by Wells Fargo & Co, rather than Citigroup. Wells Fargo announced a merger with Wachovia, despite the exclusivity enjoyed by Citigroup. Wells Fargo considered that the provisions of the law passed by Congress allow it to merge.[250]​.

• - October 4: AIG says it will focus on insurance activities. Later, Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of the European Union, decided to organize an emergency meeting in Paris about the crisis. Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, Gordon Brown and Silvio Berlusconi pledged to support European financial institutions in crisis but did not support the idea of ​​a European fund to support banks. The four European leaders called for the organization of an international summit "as soon as possible" to review the rules of capitalism.

• - October 5: Germany approved a rescue plan for the real estate bank Hypo Real Estate, increased from 35,000 to 50,000 million euros. The German government also announced a full guarantee for private deposits.

• - October 6: The US Federal Reserve and other major central banks around the world slashed interest rates to prevent the financial crisis from becoming a global economic crisis. The Dow Jones suffered its biggest loss during a trading day, closing below 10,000 points for the first time since 2004. Paris recorded the biggest drop on the CAC 40 with a decline of 9.04% to 3,712 points. London fell by 7.85%, Frankfurt, by 7.07% and Zurich"), by 6.12%. Moscow") saw a decrease of 19%. Furthermore, the press announced a planned merger between the Caisse d'Epargne and Banque Populaire.

• - October 7: European Union finance ministers meeting in Luxembourg reached an agreement on the principles of possible rescue plans for banks and insurance companies in crisis, but did not reach an agreement on the establishment of a European fund. The guarantee for bank deposits was increased from 20,000 to 50,000 euros. It was about 70,000 euros in France. Spain, which had not been invited to the meeting on October 4, launched its own plan to deal with the financial crisis. In addition, Iceland's Prime Minister Geir Haarde warned that it was experiencing a and assumed control over the banking system.

November 2008

• - November 4: The Dow Jones gained 305 points, its highest gain in four weeks.

• - November 5: Volatility returned to Wall Street after the presidential election. The Dow Jones lost 486 points.

• - November 6: Wall Street collapsed for the second day, while data about the economic situation caused fears.

• - November 9: China announced a relaunch plan of 455 billion euros.

• - November 15: The G20 met in Washington to find an action plan. The objective was to find the bases for a reform of the global financial system.

• - November 19: The Dow Jones fell approximately 427 points to close below 8000. Auto stocks fell and favored the Washington stock market.[253]​.

• - Subprime mortgage crisis.

• - Financial crisis of 2008.

• - Stock market crisis of January 2008.

• - Liquidity crisis of September 2008.

• - October 2008 global stock market crisis.

• - Great Recession.

Note: the vast majority of references were consulted during 2008 and others, at the beginning of 2009.

Additional sources

• - American Treasury.

• - Wall Street investments.

• - American Federal Reserve.

• - IMF.