Blue Monday Crash 2009
{{Short description|Banking shares crash in the UK}}
On Monday, 19 January 2009, a date previously known as Blue Monday, British banking shares collapsed in a rout of selling after Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) announced the biggest corporate losses in British history. The shares fell over 67% in a single day. Shares in all other British banks suffered heavy losses.
The next day Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays fell sharply again. RBS and HSBC continued to fall.{{Cite web |url=http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/ |title=Yahoo! Finance UK - FTSE, Stock Exchange, Mortgages, Loans & More |access-date=2009-01-20 |archive-date=2009-01-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090117203009/http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/ |url-status=dead }}
RBS
News reports on RBS indicated a £28 billion loss for 2008, and the UK government pledged to increase its stake in the company to 70% {{Citation needed|date=January 2009}}.
There was speculation that nationalisation was imminent.{{Cite web | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/4292334/Royal-Bank-of-Scotland-driven-to-the-brink-of-nationalisation.html | title=Royal Bank of Scotland driven to the brink of nationalisation | date=20 January 2009 }}
Billions of pounds were wiped from its stock market value despite the Government’s pledge to keep it afloat with more money from the taxpayer.
As Gordon Brown set out plans to increase public ownership to 70 percent of what was once one of the world’s biggest financial conglomerates, City investors dumped the shares in a selling frenzy.{{Cite web |date=2024-06-02 |title=The Times & The Sunday Times |url=https://www.thetimes.com/ |access-date=2024-06-02 |website=The Times |language=en}}
Share price falls
Share prices fell as follows {{Citation needed|date=January 2009}}:
=Monday, 19 January 2009=
- RBS ~67%
- Lloyds Banking Group ~ 33%
- Barclays ~10%
- HSBC~6%
=Tuesday, 20 January 2009=
- RBS ~11%
- Lloyds Banking Group ~31%
- Barclays ~17%
- HSBC ~3%