Contagion risk.
When one market's problem spreads to others.
2008 was the textbook case. Lehman, then everything.
Why it matters: Determines whether a single bank failure becomes a sector or systemic event.
Technical and plain English.
Contagion risk. The risk that financial distress at one institution, sector, or sovereign propagates to others through direct exposure channels (counterparty credit, interbank lending, shared collateral) or indirect channels (depositor confidence, asset fire sales, correlated risk reassessments). Drives interventions including emergency liquidity facilities, deposit guarantees, and resolution authorities. Acute in 2008 (Lehman to AIG to money markets), 2010-2012 (PIIGS sovereign chain), 2023 (SVB to Signature to First Republic).
Banks lend to each other and hold each other's debt. If one bank fails, the others who lent to it lose money. Depositors at similar banks get nervous and pull their money, which forces those banks to sell assets at fire-sale prices, which makes them weaker. That's contagion. It's why regulators step in fast when one bank fails. To stop the panic from spreading.
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