Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was a New York based global financial services firm. Before declaring bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the US (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch), doing business in investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading, especially U.S. Treasury securities. Lehman filed for Chapter 11 on September 15, 2008. According to Reuters Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. had reported $639 billion of assets at the time, which makes its bankruptcy roughly six times larger than any other in U.S. history.
Lehman Brothers Holdings plans to distribute around $17.9 billion to creditors, boosting its total payout to roughly $80.4 billion since it left its record bankruptcy, which according to Reuters, helped trigger the global financial crisis. The New York-based bank had failed to win U.S. government aid or attract a buyer. According to Bloomberg News, the payout is scheduled for April 3.
Secretary of Treasury Henry M. Paulson, Jr., issued a statement saying, Healthy capital markets are the backbone of a vibrant U.S. economy and critical to the well-being of our economy and American families. I am confident in the resilience of our capital markets, and in the commitment of U.S. regulators and market participants to work together through this difficult period. It has been more than five years since the investment bank’s collapse.
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