Bear Stearns had a reputation for being an aggressive trading bank willing to take risks. It was one of the most highly leveraged firms on Wall Street, its balance sheet indicated $395 billion in assets bolstered by $11.1 billion in equity – a leverage proportion of around 36 to 1. The company's administration was known to concentrate on quick opportunistic returns with minimal long term strategic planning. The collapse of the organization in March 2008 and its inevitable deal to JPMorgan was a key aspect in perceiving the shortcomings of risk management in the financial industry that prompted to the meltdown in the financial services industry, subsequently leading to global financial crisis and resulting
