The bankruptcy filing on Sunday by CIT Group, one of the largest small-business lenders in the United States, is the fifth largest company bankruptcy in the United States.
Here is a list of the 20 biggest US bankruptcy filings since 1980, in descending order.
1. Lehman Brothers (bank) - September 15, 2008 - $US691 billion
2. Washington Mutual (bank) - September 26, 2008 - $US327.9 billion
3. WorldCom (telecom) - July 21, 2008 - $US103.9 billion
4. General Motors (automaker) - June 1, 2009 - $US91 billion
5. CIT (lending bank) - November 1, 2009 - $US71 billion
6. Enron (energy trading) - December 2, 2001 - $US65.5 billion
7. Conseco (insurance) - December 17, 2002 - $US61.4 billion
8. Chrysler (automaker) - April 30, 2009 - $US39.3 billion
9. Pacific Gas and Electric (utility) - April 6, 2001 - $US36.1 billion
10. Texaco (oil) - April 21, 1987 - $US34.9 billion
11. Financial Corporation of America (bank) - September 9, 1988 - $US33.8 billion
12. Refco (trading) - October 17, 2005 - $US33.3 billion
13. Indymac (bank) - July 31, 2008 - $US32.7 billion
14. Global Crossing (telecom) - January 28, 2002 - $US30.1 billion
15. Bank of New England (bank) - January 7, 1991 - $US29.7 billion
16. Lyondell (chemicals, subsidiary of Netherlands' LyondellBasell) - January 6, 2009 - $US27.4 billion
17. Calpine (power company) - December 20, 2005 - $US27.2 billion
18. New Century Financial Corporation (trading) - April 2, 2007 - $US26.1 billion
19. United Airlines (airline) - December 9, 2002 - $US25.2 billion
20. Colonial Bank (bank) - August 14, 2009 - $US25 billion
AFP
