The scale of non-bank financial intermediaries have increased significantly, especially in the money and stock markets total turnover of the top five at the beginning of 2007 investment banks amounted to 4 trillion dollars despite the fact that the assets of the five largest U.S. bank holding companies did not exceed 6 trillion. dollars, and the entire banking system - 10 trillion. Growth in long-term risky and relatively illiquid assets financed by short-term borrowing, making a significant amount of investment instruments and financial institutions vulnerable - a relatively small proportion of risky assets could undermine investor confidence and other market participants to a wide range of assets. In such a situation, banks were unable to completely overcome and neutralize the effect of "flight" of investors from non-banking system. Often it is the banks were the owners of non-bank investment intermediaries and to maintain the liquidity of the past, they had to write off a lot of commitment. The situation was complicated by the fall in property prices and the serious problems in the markets securitization and structured finance. As a result, banks have actually lost the ability to remove from their balance sheets risky assets, and the U.S. financial system began to feel the growing influence of the growth of borrowing costs and a pin for financial assets. In addition, the change in its structure complicated the management of crises with the help of a traditional set of instruments the central bank. "After the bankruptcy in the spring of 2008 a major investment bank Bear Stearns, bought out its rival JP Morgan Chase at a very low price, only the establishment of state control has saved the largest U.S. mortgage company Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. However, in mid-September, the crisis has received new impetus, when only five days with the global financial market had disappeared two major investment banks - Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. The other two - Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and a large insurance group AIG had to seek new owners. The latter was saved from bankruptcy by the state, bought 80% stake in AIG, released the top management and has invested $ 85 billion in support of the company. According to experts, if AIG went bankrupt, it would destroy the entire U.S. financial the system. Category: Liquidity of the banking system of Ukraine