Two of the three largest banking failures in the U.S. history prompted the merger of Swiss giant Credit Suisse with Swiss regulators, which led to massive upheaval in the last month.
There are fears of banking contagion and investors are worried that global economies will suffer if interest rates are torpedo more lenders. Here is a rundown of the biggest financial crises in the last 40 years:
Over 1,000 savings and loan S&L institutions were wiped out in the crisis that unfolded throughout the 1980s, resulting in up to $124 billion in costs for taxpayers.
The upheaval was based on the unsound real estate and commercial loans made by S&Ls after the United States removed interest-rate caps on their loans and deposits, which allowed them to take on more risk.
After nearly a decade of supercharged growth, the junk bond market slumped in the late 1980s after a series of interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.
Michael Milken had helped popularize the financial instrument, with many using it as a way of funding leveraged buyouts. Demand eventually outpaced demand, and the market tanked. Milken was charged with securities and reporting violations. He paid $200 million in fines and served a 22 month sentence in jail.
The country received external financial support from the International Monetary Fund and a $50 billion bailout from the United States.
A massive outflow of capital from Asian economies put pressure on the currencies in the region, necessitating government support.
The crisis started in Thailand, where authorities had to devalue the Thai baht after months of trying to defend the currency's peg to the dollar. International Monetary Fund and the World Bank had to step in with rescue packages that totaled more than $100 billion for the economies.
The highly leveraged U.S. hedge fund lost over $4 billion in a span of a few months in 1998 after the Asian crisis and Russia's financial crisis. The fund took a huge exposure to Russian government bonds and took a lot of losses after Russia defaulted on its debt and devalued its currency.
A $3.5 billion private sector bailout for LTCM and the Federal Reserve cut interest rates three times in the past three months, according to the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
The biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression was due to risky loans to shaky borrowers, which started to lose value after central banks raised interest rates in the period leading up to the crisis. Many companies had taken big positions in highly leveraged mortgage bonds that had been proliferated in the past few years.
The crisis resulted in the collapse of some Wall Street giants, including Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, both of whom had large positions in mortgage securities. The insurance giant American International Group, which needed a $180 billion bailout, was engulfed by the debacle. The U.S. government closed Washington Mutual, the largest failure of a U.S. bank. The Great Recession resulted in the worst economic downturn in 70 years.
The surging debt at some major European economies caused a loss of confidence in the region's businesses, spurred by the 2008 financial crisis.
Greece was hit hardest as its primary industries of shipping and tourism were economically sensitive. It was the first to be bailed out by other euro zone economies. Portugal, Ireland and Cyprus were rescued from default and unemployment surged, particularly in the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea.