...The crumble of the Lehman Brothers undertook the world by storm. The Lehman Brothers was the leading mortgage broker in the across the globe for centuries. When they filed for bankruptcy in 2008 the financial world was crippled. Over 25,000 employees lost their jobs and livelihood due to the fact that this bankruptcy uprooted their lives and deserted them with absolutely nothing. The Lehman Brothers assets calculated up to $639 billion while their debt equaled to $619 billion (Case study: The collapse of lehman brothers, n.d.). This enormous volume of money for bankruptcy summed up to be the greatest bankruptcy in accounting financial history. This is clearly not the record the Lehman Brothers were attempting to break, but it was the reality. This catastrophe interposed to the $10 trillion in market capitalization that has affected the finance worldwide for the month of October 2008 (Case study: The collapse of lehman brothers, n.d.). This exploit devastated the stock market, the economy, the employees, and the families who trusted the Lehman Brothers company to use them to finance their home loans. Henry Lehman, a German immigrant, started a diminutive conventional store in 1844 and that was established in Montgomery, Alabama (Case study: The collapse of lehman brothers, n.d.). Then by 1850 Henry, Mayor, and Emanuel created Lehman Brothers the mortgage broker company (Case study: The collapse of lehman brothers, n.d.). The organization flourished as the nation grew...
Words: 1614 - Pages: 7
...Lehman faced an unprecedented loss due to the continuing subprime mortgage crisis in 2008. According to Jenny Anderson and Erick Dash’s article, “For Lehman More Cuts and Anxiety”, Lehman's loss was a result of having held on to large positions in subprime and other lower-rated mortgage tranches when securitizing the underlying mortgages. During the years of the housing boom Lehman Brothers was increasing its revenue. They were increasing their profits from all of the home mortgages. Leman Brothers acquired subprime mortgage lenders. Between the year 2004 and 2006 Leman Brothers real estate business enabled revenues in the capital market to increase by 56%, giving the firm a securitized 146$ billion in mortgages in 2006. In 2007 the firm reported a net income of a record 4.2 billion on revenue of 19.3 billion (Case study p.1). Everything was going well for Lehman Brothers between 2005 and 2007. In beginning of 2007 Lehman’s stock prices had reached a high record. Unfortunately soon after that subprime mortgages began to default. Stocks for Lehman Brothers dropped dramatically after the default in subprime loans and from the start of the crisis. During the default in the subprime loans, Lehman Brother’s closed its subprime lender, eliminating 1,200 jobs in 23 of their locations. During the crisis in 2007 Lehman Brother’s leverage ratio jumped to 31 from 24 in 2004 (Case Study p.2). The leverage ratio shows how much more risky the company became. After Bear Stearns...
Words: 510 - Pages: 3
...Lynch (now as Subsidiary of Bank of America), Lehman Brothers and Bear Steams (sold to JPMorgan Chase) were the world top five investment banks in United States. They were the key players in the financial markets and make significant contribution to the economics. But when they failed, the consequences would also be extremely fatal. The 158 years old Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sunday 1:45am, September 15, 2008 (“Wikipedia: Lehman Brothers”, July 15, 2013). With a total assets of $639 billion and $619 billion in debts, Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy filing became the largest in history, It’s assets far surpassed those of previous bankrupt giants such as WorldCom and Enron (“IInvestopedia: Case Study", April 02, 2009). The collapse of the Lehman Brothers is contagious and even triggered the Global Financial Crisis. LEHMAN BROTHERS HISTORY Three brothers – Henry Lehman, Emanuel Lehman and Mayer Lehman in 1850, founded Lehman Brothers. Started as a normal dry-goods store, the brothers grew the business by buying and selling cotton to planters living in and around Montgomery, Alabama ("History of Lehman Brothers", n.d). Eventually the brothers built a cotton storage warehouse together with a cotton merchant John Wesley Durr in a brief partnership form. Thereafter in 1858, an office in New York was opened to fulfill the needs of the growing sales and trades. After Civic War, Lehman Brothers who already have a strong pressure in the cotton...
Words: 2793 - Pages: 12
...Question 1: From this case study, it showed how Lehman Brothers walked down to the end of it business. Through Lehman Brothers’ case, it reflects the ugly side of a corporate. A big recognized company collapse due to it unsuccessful leadership management, culture and dishonesty by it people caused the company walked down to the end of it business. There are several points showed how it gone bankrupted. By using the ethical perspective to look at Lehman Brothers’ situation, it showed that the company being dishonest to it clients, failure in the company leadership and corporate management are the major problems that lead to the company downfalls. As a Wall Street icon, they disappointed the public and being irresponsible towards their actions, against the ethnical issue by not being honest to review the actual situation of the company, but using others method to cover it annual report. In my opinion, the top management is the main issue that caused the downfall of Lehman Brothers. According to the case study, it mentioned the major problem at Lehman was culture and reward, it showed the top management of the company did not have a structure way to motivate and guide their employees on the appropriate way of doing tasks. For example, individuals who makes questionable deals were hailed and treated as “conquering heroes” and the others who questionable the decision was often being ignored. This shows that the company only wants to have short term earning instead of...
Words: 768 - Pages: 4
...------------------------------------------------- Lehman Brothers Collapse ------------------------------------------------- Lehman Brothers Collapse Executive Summary The following report discusses and analyzes the events leading up to the failure of Lehman Brothers as well as outcomes and repercussions of one of the largest bankruptcy cases to date. The first part of this paper describes the primary factors that contributed to the ultimate demise of Lehman Brothers. The main factors that lead to the crisis include, but are not limited to; the misrepresentation of financial statements, a complete lack of internal control, accounting as well as management collusion, managerial fraud, increased moral hazard, and the overpayment of executives within the firm. Misrepresentation of the financial statements and the misuse of accounting practices was the main reason for the Collapse of Lehman Brothers. It was said that upper management violated the Sarbanes-Oxley Act through the use of questionable and unethical accounting practices, more specifically through the use of Repo 105 transactions. The second part of this paper addresses the underlying causes and issues relative to the study of financial ethics. This paper also addresses those who were involved as well as affected by the events that took place in the Lehman Brothers scandal. After evaluating the reasons for Lehman Brothers failure, the report discusses possible courses of action to take in order...
Words: 3830 - Pages: 16
...LEHMAN BROTHERS: TOO BIG TO FAIL? WILLIAM RYBACK LEHMAN BROTHERS: TOO BIG TO FAIL? Copyright by the Toronto Leadership Centre. This case was prepared exclusively for a class discussion at a Banking, Insurance or Securities session offered by the Toronto Centre. Information has been summarized and should not be regarded as complete or accurate in every detail. The text should be considered as class exercise material and in no way be used to reach conclusions about the nature or behaviour of any of the persons or institutions mentioned.. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form without the permission of the Toronto Leadership Centre for Financial Sector Supervision. Sources: This document is based on information that was in the public domain at the times mentioned or which became public after the resolution of the issues. It does not include information confidential to the financial institution involved. 1 LEHMAN BROTHERS: TOO BIG TO FAIL? WILLIAM RYBACK This case study is written and presented by William Ryback, former special advisor to the Financial Supervisory Service in Seoul, Korea; Deputy Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority; and career bank supervisor in the United States. The material presented is derived from public media sources. INTRODUCTION In this case study an example of a large bank failure and its after effects on the financial markets is presented...
Words: 4616 - Pages: 19
...Introduction Lehman Brothers holdings, Inc.: Lehman Brothers holding, Inc. was a financial services multinational firm who ranked 4th largest in investment banking sector in US. This was a huge organization having 26,000 employees working for Lehman Brothers (Join Bain & Company-Our Mission, 2012). On 15th of September 2008, the organization was filed in chapter 11 as bankrupt with $639 billion in assets & $619 billion in debt and had an incredible effects in financial markets and economies not only in US but worldwide and it leads to financial crises. The collapse of Lehman Brothers Holding, Inc. was the largest in US history (Nightmare mortgages, 2008). The key ethical words we are looking in these report are: Massive accounting fraud, failure to government policy and regulation, 26,000 employees lose their jobs worldwide, world economy and financial crises. The key players we are looking in these report are: employees, government, Lehman Brothers, other subordinate organization like Ernst & Young, shareholders, stakeholders, and customers. Bain Capital: Bain capital is one of the world’s foremost private investment firms which was found by Mitt Romney in 1984 (About Bain Capital, 2012). The culture of Bain capital and its organization was full of unethical who always find a way to bias and break laws in order to gain huge profits for its firm and for Mitt Romney as individual. In this report, we will discuss about the unethical behavior by Mitt Romney towards their...
Words: 1557 - Pages: 7
...Case Study : Lehman Brother’s Demise of Lehman Brothers Lehman Brother’s demise was the event that gripped the US financial system into shock. It was the fourth largest investment firm in the US as of 2007 with 25,000 employees worldwide. The Firm had an exponential growth and recognized profits from 2005 to 2006 and in 2007 reported a net income of $4.2 billion dollars on revenues of 19.3 billion. The stock price of the company reached all-time high when it hit $86.18 per share. Lehman increased 56% in its revenues only from the subprime mortgage business alone. While the company kept reaping benefits, the real estate market in the US started to show signs of pending bubble burst. In March 2007 stock market experienced biggest drop in 5 years and mortgage defaults rose up to the highest percentage in almost a decade. Investors were confident with their money as they were satisfied with Lehman’s financial statements and their past resilience with depressions. According to NyTimes “Lehman never publicly disclosed its use of Repo 105 transactions, its accounting treatment for these transactions, the considerable escalation of its total Repo 105 usage in late 2007 and into 2008, or the material impact these transactions had on the firm’s publicly reported net leverage ratio.” Later when Lehman was exposed of their use of accounting gimmicks to mislead the investors. This led the investors to lose confidence in Lehman brothers. Investors started dumping their stocks while other...
Words: 1457 - Pages: 6
...THANH SON, LUONG Student ID: 116181927 MDC individual assignment Short-termism Introduction Short-termism or ‘myopia’ has long been a matter of great controversy. The effects led by this dysfunctional behavior are perceived negatively across all sectors of the economy. This report is going to define and analyze the problem in both theory and real world by the example of Lehman Brothers. Recommendations are also made to mitigate the issue. Overview of the issue In order to last, there is a need for firms to take appropriate actions to secure long-term sustainability. However, the short-term outcomes must not be precluded from consideration, if the firms at least want to survive. Therefore, both long-term and short-term goals need to be equally considered. The most important point is whether the firm can maintain the balance between long-term and short-term. The problem, so called ‘short-termism’ or ‘myopia’, arises when an organization acts in favor of short-term targets at the expense of the long-term (Marginson and Mcaulay, 2008). There are a number of reasons for the occurrence of short-termism. The first reason which causes the issue here is the frequency of financial reporting. More frequent financial reporting is considered as a solution for a more accountable and transparent accounting system. However, this solution leads to another problem for managerial accounting because it pressures companies’ executives to focus more on short-term results, which promotes...
Words: 1520 - Pages: 7
...organizational culture finds this as an acceptable practice. As in the case of Lehman Brothers, the top level executives demonstrated this type of unethical behavior and encouraged the employees to behave in the same way. Employees quickly realized there are no internal controls in place to prevent them from practicing unethical behavior and ultimately spilled over into their business dealings. Why? The reason is less risk of getting caught for this type of behavior. The company culture at Lehman Brothers was a reward-driven organization, which promoted employees to perform to the highest level and in exchange would be rewarded. One of the risks involved in this approach is that employees will do whatever it takes to continue to perform at that rate for the benefits of reaping the reward. The core values of these employees will eventually reveal themselves and the individual will arrive at a crossroad by either doing what is right or wrong. Moreover, top level management at Lehman Brothers misrepresented information to the stakeholders, such as lying about how much top level management was getting paid, and manipulating the data on reports to hide any wrongdoing of misappropriating funds. In the case of Lehman Brothers, the organization’s culture and value system ultimately led to their downfall. This company lacked the organizational values and ethics necessary to have success; this resulted in Lehman Brothers and affiliates claiming chapter 11 bankruptcy. All of which could have...
Words: 1116 - Pages: 5
...summer(winter in Australia) when we heard the news that Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy during the terrible ‘sub-prime meltdown’(Investopedia 2009). As a giant among investment banks with a history over 150 years,Lehman Brothers suddenly collapsed in few months. How did Lehman Brothers go bankrupt? Why did it happen? Are there any methods that could have been used to avoid the doomsday? These questions will be discussed below. Case study overview In early 2007, with the stock reached $86.18(Investopedia 2009), Lehman Brothers seemed to have done a great job. Therefore ,the company underestimated the risks posed by rising ‘home delinquencies’(Terry 2008) and overestimated the risk-enduring capacity of the US housing market. One real estate investment broker described Lehman as ‘the real estate A.T.M(Terry 2008).Then Lehman’s share price went into a tailspin when the dark days came in August 2007. Dramatically, at the end of 2007, Lehman’s share price rebounded, as ‘global equity markets reached new highs and prices for fixed-income assets staged a temporary rebound’(Terry 2008).However, Lehman failed to seize the chance to ‘trim its massive mortgage portfolio’(Investopedia 2009). According to the Investpedia (2009), the news was a deathblow to Lehman, leading to a 45% plunge in the stock and a 66% spike incredit-default swaps on the company's debt. With the company's hedge fund clients began pulling out, Lehman completely went bankrupt on September 15(Investopedia 2009)...
Words: 1177 - Pages: 5
...Working Paper Series Fall of Lehman Brothers – reasons why the failure could not be stopped Arif Ahmed South Asian Management Technologies Foundation August, 2011 1 Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ 3 Background....................................................................................................................................... 4 Genesis of the Problem .................................................................................................................... 5 The Abettors of Failure..................................................................................................................... 9 Controls that failed ......................................................................................................................... 12 Preventing another Lehman........................................................................................................... 16 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 19 Reference ....................................................................................................................................... 22 2 Abstract Failure of Lehman Brothers marks an important point of modern economic history. In a matter of eight months a successful and...
Words: 6494 - Pages: 26
...The revaluation of Chinese Yuan The Chinese national economy is probably the most powerful nowadays. At least, it is the main antagonist to the American economy. A lot of experts tend to call it as the main driver of renewal of the world’s economy after the global financial crisis. A reasonable question is what the preconditions of such powerful status are. In our opinion, these preconditions are the following. First of all, it is cheap labor force. Moreover, the country has a lot of labor force, more than any other country in the world. Because of the cheap labor force the country’s products are quite cheap on the international market. That is why it is not surprising that export plays a great role in the country’s economy. Cheap labor force is not the only reason for the competitiveness of the Chinese products. Cheap Yuan is another reason, but about it we are going to talk below. Some additional information about the national economy of China can be got from the following quote. “China's economy is huge and expanding rapidly. In the last 30 years, the rate of Chinese economic growth has been almost miraculous, averaging 8 percent growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per annum. The economy has grown more than 10 times during that period, with Chinese GDP reaching 3.42 trillion US dollars in 2007. China already has the biggest economy after the United States and most analysts predict China will become the largest economy in the world this century” (The Chinese Economy). ...
Words: 3461 - Pages: 14
...various financial industry participants as guidelines. The 7 principles provide a comprehensive overview of the necessary steps for business continuity planning. Financial industry participants are required to develop respective business continuity planning in accordance to the 7 high-level principles. There are various incidents within the last decade that has resulted in major operational disruption to financial industry. However, with the guidance of the 7 high-level principles, most of the participants were able to cope with crisis well and survive through the crisis. In this report, several case studies were researched and commented on their business continuity planning. Subprime crisis which caused the collapse of Lehman Brothers has caused a significant stir in the financial industry. Many counterparties ended up with huge exposure and default due to the fall of Lehman Brothers. However, Euroclear was able to manage the crisis well after it activated its crisis management plan which has been developed before the crisis. Similarly, terrorist’s attack on New York World Trade Center has not only caused major security issues but has also significantly affecting the financial industry. Bank of America and Deutsche Bank were the direct victims of the terrorist attack. Both banks remained sound operation and survived through the crisis due to well business continuity planning. Besides, Hurricane Gustav that caused massive destructions in United States in 2008 has crippled...
Words: 2887 - Pages: 12
...Sandra Griffin Learning Team Reflection Stephanie Ledford - Introduction Henry Lehman, a German immigrant, founded a small grocery store in Montgomery, Alabama in 1844. Then in 1850 along with his two brothers they founded Lehman Brothers. Lehman Brothers started as a general merchandising business and evolved into a commodities broker (Investopdeia Staff, 2009). The American Civil War would prove to be an early challenge, followed by the Great Depression in the early part of the 20th Century. The swift development of railroads across the United States was an advantage the Lehman Brothers were able to utilize and led the company to serve as financial advisors and underwriters for the railroad companies. In 1920, Robert Lehman became a partner and moved into a leadership role. He centered his leadership role on the belief that consumption was the key versus production. Because of this firm belief, Lehman Brothers prospered with financing for airline and motion picture companies. The age of electric in the 1950’s, capital market growth in the 1960’s, the rise of international business in the 1970’s, and the focus of mergers and acquisitions in the 1980’s helped Lehman Brothers grow as a company. From the outside, it appeared that Lehman Brothers was performing well as a company. The bubble burst for the company in 2008 when the subprime mortgage lending crises hit the United States. Lehman Brothers filed bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, and is the largest company to file for...
Words: 1481 - Pages: 6
