- Bank of America, the largest depository institution in the U.S., on January 12th, 2008, agreed to buy ailing Countrywide Financial for $4.1 billion. The deal was approved in June and closed July 1, 2008, for $2.5 billion.
Bank of America also bought the 94-year-old brokerage house, Merrill Lynch, on September 15, 2008, in an all-stock transaction for $50 billion.
- IndyMac Bank was the third-biggest federally insured bank ever to be taken over by the government. After a run on the bank, IndyMac closed its doors on July 11, 2008, reopened as IndyMac Federal Bank on July 15, 2008, and was eventually purchased from the FDIC by a group of private investors for $13.9 billion.
- Washington Mutual, the nation's largest savings and loan, was seized by federal regulators on September 25, becoming the largest bank failure in U.S. history. The government immediately sold WaMu to JPMorgan Chase for $1.9 billion. JPMorgan Chase had purchased Bear Stearns only six months earlier.
- Downey Savings and Loan, facing losses of $3.7 billion, was seized by regulators on November 21, 2008, and turned over to U.S. Bank, a unit of US Bancorp.
- Security Pacific Bank, was closed by the government on November 7, 2008, and reopened on November 10, 2008, as Pacific Western Bank.
The collapse of WaMu surpassed the failure of Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust of Chicago on May 17, 1984, which had been the biggest failure up until then.
