My Diary 449 --- Subprime Collapse to Global Financial Meltdown:

      Subprime Collapse to Global Financial Meltdown: Timeline

     Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- The following is a timeline of events that led to the current global financial crisis.

     March 5, 2007: HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's biggest bank by market value, says the U.S./>/> subprime market is ``unstable'' and now in a ``downturn,'' making it the main drag on company earnings.

     March 29, 2007: HSBC Chairman Stephen Green says the U.S.subprime mortgage services division will be ``run down significantly'' as the bank tries to recover from loan losses.

     April 2, 2007: New Century Financial Corp., which specialized in loans to people with poor credit, files for bankruptcy protection after being overwhelmed by customer defaults.

     July 17, 2007: Investors in two Bear Stearns Cos. hedge funds that invested in collateralized debt obligations backed by subprime mortgage loans are told there is no value left in the funds, wiping out $1.6 billion originally invested.

     July 19, 2007: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke tells the U.S. Senate's Banking Committee that there may be as much as $100 billion in losses associated with subprime mortgage products.

     Aug. 9, 2007: BNP Paribas SA, France/>'s biggest bank, halts withdrawals from three investment funds because it can't ``fairly'' value their holdings, as concern over U.S./>/> subprime mortgage losses roils credit markets.

     Aug. 17, 2007: The Fed lowers the interest rate it charges banks and acknowledges for the first time that an extraordinary policy shift is needed to contain the subprime-mortgage collapse.

     Aug. 22, 2007: Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest U.S.mortgage lender, sells $2 billion of preferred stock to Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. bank by market value, to bolster its finances.

     Sept. 7, 2007: The three-month London/>/> interbank offered rate, or Libor, the rate banks charge each other for dollars, rises to a seven-year high, signaling efforts by central banks to free up lending are sputtering.

     Sept. 14, 2007: Northern Rock Plc says the Bank of England agreed to provide emergency funds to ease a ``severe liquidity squeeze'' sparked by U.S. subprime mortgage defaults following the first run on a British bank in more than a century.

     Oct. 9, 2007: U.S./> stock indexes rally to records for the second time in a month after minutes from the Fed allayed investor concern that the U.S./>/> economy is heading for a recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index set all-time highs, with the Dow closing at 14,164.53.

     Oct. 30, 2007: Merrill Lynch & Co. ousts Stan O'Neal as chairman and chief executive officer after reporting a $2.24 billion loss, six times bigger than a forecast the firm offered just three weeks earlier.

     Nov. 4, 2007: Citigroup Inc. CEO Charles ``Chuck'' Prince, who took over in 2003, steps down after the largest U.S./>/> bank by assets increased its estimate for mortgage-related writedowns.

     Jan. 11, 2008: Bank of America, the biggest U.S. bank by market value, agrees to buy Countrywide for about $4 billion.

     March 14, 2008: Bear Stearns Cos. gets emergency funding from the U.S. Federal Reserve and JPMorgan Chase & Co. as a run on the bank depletes its cash reserves in three days.

     March 16, 2008: JPMorgan Chase agrees to buy Bear Stearns for 7 percent of its market value in a sale brokered by the Fed and the U.S. Treasury.

     April 1, 2008: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the fourth- largest U.S./>/> securities firm, raises $4 billion from a stock sale to quell speculation it's short of capital.

     April 9, 2008: Washington Mutual Inc. rejected an offer from JPMorgan Chase to buy it for as much as $8 a share, or $7 billion, before announcing it received a $7 billion capital infusion from a group led by TPG Inc., the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the situation.

     April 28, 2008: The U.S. Internal Revenue Service starts distributing tax rebates electronically as part of a $168 billion economic stimulus plan.

     May 31, 2008: Bear Stearns ceases to exist as the acquisition by JPMorgan is completed.

     June 20, 2008: The Dow closes below 12,000.

     July 11, 2008: IndyMac Bancorp Inc., the second-biggest independent U.S./>/> mortgage lender, is seized by federal regulators after a run by depositors depleted its cash.

     July 31, 2008: Nationwide Building Society, Britain/>'s fourth-biggest mortgage lender, says U.K./>/> house prices declined the most in almost two decades in July and consumer confidence fell to a record low as the economy edged closer to a recession.

     Aug. 12, 2008: UBS AG, Switzerland/>/>'s biggest bank, announces plans to separate its investment banking and wealth management units after mounting subprime writedowns prompt rich clients to withdraw funds for the first time in almost eight years.

     Aug. 31, 2008: Commerzbank AG agrees to buy Allianz SE's Dresdner Bank for 9.8 billion euros ($13.3 billion) in Germany/>/>'s biggest banking takeover in three years.

     Sept. 7, 2008: The U.S. government seizes control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the largest U.S./>/> mortgage-finance companies.

     Sept. 15, 2008: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. files the largest bankruptcy in history, and Bank of America agrees to acquire Merrill Lynch for about $50 billion.

     Sept. 16, 2008: American International Group Inc. accepts an $85 billion loan from the Fed to avert the worst financial collapse in history, and the government takes over the company.

     Sept. 18, 2008: Lloyds TSB Group Plc, the U.K./>'s biggest provider of checking accounts, agrees to buy HBOS Plc, Britain/>/>'s largest mortgage lender, for 10.4 billion pounds ($18.1 billion).

     Sept. 21, 2008: Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley receive approval to become commercial banks regulated by the Fed as tight credit markets forced Wall Street's two remaining independent investment banks to widen their sources of funding.

     Sept. 23, 2008: Goldman Sachs says it will raise at least $7.5 billion from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and public investors in a bid to quell concerns that pushed up the Wall Street firm's borrowing costs and hurt its stock.

     Sept. 26, 2008: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ends a program that monitored securities firms' capital after Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, the only companies remaining under its jurisdiction, became banks overseen by the Fed.

     Sept. 26, 2008: The SEC's inspector general releases a report asserting that the agency failed in overseeing Bear Stearns because it knew the firm had ``high leverage'' and was too concentrated in mortgage securities before its forced sale to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

     Sept. 26, 2008: Washington Mutual Inc. is seized by government regulators and its branches and assets sold to JPMorgan Chase in the biggest U.S. bank failure in history.

     Sept. 27, 2008: Washington Mutual files for bankruptcy protection.

     Sept. 28, 2008: Fortis, the largest Belgian financial- services firm, receives an 11.2 billion-euro rescue from Belgium/>, the Netherlands/> and Luxembourg/>/> after investor confidence in the bank evaporates.

     Sept. 29, 2008: The House of Representatives rejects a $700 billion plan to rescue the U.S./>/> financial system, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 778 points, its biggest point drop ever. Citigroup agrees to acquire the banking operations of Wachovia Corp. for about $2.16 billion after shares of the North Carolina/>/> lender collapsed under the weight of overdue mortgages.Bradford & Bingley Plc, the U.K./>/>'s biggest lender to landlords, is seized by the government. The Dow closes below 11,000.

     Sept. 30, 2008: Dexia SA, the world's biggest lender to local governments, gets a 6.4 billion-euro state-backed rescue as a worsening financial crisis forces policy makers across Europe/> to aid ailing banks. Ireland/>/> says it will guarantee its banks' deposits and debts for two years.

     Oct. 1, 2008: The U.S. Senate approves a revised version of the rescue plan that was refashioned to entice enough votes for passage.

     Oct. 3, 2008: The House passes the revised version of the rescue plan. Wells Fargo & Co., the biggest U.S. bank on the West Coast, agrees to buy all of Wachovia for about $15.1 billion, trumping Citigroup's government-assisted offer. U.S. President George W. Bush signs the rescue plan into law.

     Oct. 5, 2008: BNP Paribas SA, France/>'s biggest bank, will take control of Fortis's units in Belgium/> and Luxembourg/>/> after an earlier government rescue failed to ensure the company's stability as the global credit crisis worsened.

     Oct. 6, 2008: The Fed says it will double its auctions of cash to banks to as much as $900 billion and is considering further steps to unfreeze short-term lending markets as the credit crunch deepens. The German government and the country's banks and insurers agreed on a 50 billion euro rescue package for commercial property lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG after an earlier bailout faltered. The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls below 10,000 for the first time in four years.

     Oct. 9, 2008: Citigroup walks away from its attempt to buy Wachovia, handing victory to Wells Fargo. The Dow Jones falls below 9,000 for the first time in five years and briefly dips below 8,000.

     Oct. 11, 2008: U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson indicates that pumping government funds into banks is a priority, saying financial markets will remain volatile.

     Oct. 12, 2008: European leaders agree to guarantee bank borrowing and use government money to prevent big lenders from going under, trying to stop the financial hemorrhage and stave off a recession.

     Oct. 13, 2008: The Fed leads an unprecedented push by central banks to flood the financial system with as many dollars as banks want, backing up government efforts to revive confidence and helping to reduce money-market rates

     Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, HBOS Plc, and Lloyds TSB Group Plc get an unprecedented 37 billion-pound bailout from the U.K./> government as Germany/>, France/> and Spain/>/> prepare similar rescues. Germany/>/> says it will provide as much as 500 billion euros in loan guarantees and capital to bolster the banking system, the country's biggest government intervention since the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.