Bank of America is the biggest bank in America and one of the ten largest banks in the world. BofA has been the target of much recent criticism for its extensive involvement in the subprime lending markets that precipitated the current recession and for a shotgun merger with Merrill Lynch that critics say damaged the bank's share value.
Washington Mutual (WaMu) failed in 2008 and was acquired by JP Morgan Chase and Co for $1.9 billion.
Until then WaMu was the largest thrift in the US, offering consumer and commercial banking services through 2,260 branches on the West Coast as well as New York and Connecticut. WaMu's mortgage business became its achilles heel. Although the bank exited the mortgage business after the housing bubble popped in 2007, it was already too late.
Before it collapsed, AIG, as measured by asset value, was the largest insurer in the world. But in September 2008, after its credit rating went down, AIG was caught without enough collateral for the credit default swaps it had sold to banks around the world, and was forced to accept a massive federal bailout package in order to forestall a collapse. As the size of the company's debts have grown, the U.S. government has readjusted the terms of the bailout, and gradually begun to take over parts of the company.
