"On July 11, 2008, California-based IndyMac Bank collapsed. Press reports of long queues of panicked depositors at IndyMac’s branches were reminiscent of the rampant bank failures of the 1980s. Indeed, the press was quick to draw comparisons to the collapse of Continental Illinois in 1984, which—until the recent collapse of Washington Mutual—had the dubious honor of being the largest bank failure in U.S. history. But the Continental fiasco led almost immediately to a substantial domestic regulatory overhaul and solidified U.S. support for an international capital adequacy standard for commercial banks. Will the current crisis prompt another round of domestic and international rule-making?"

This paper was presented at the CIGI Workshop "Crisis and Response: Whither International
Financial Regulation?" on September 26-27, 2008. The paper has not undergone the editorial
review accorded official CIGI publications.

(Image credit: Flickr user Dean Terry)