1971
Brian Chisick opens the First Alliance Mortgage Company, a consumer finance company. First Alliance would achieve exponential growth in the 1980’s after Congress deregulates and erases most state restrictions on the ''alternative'' type loans that Chisick offered.

1988
With fewer limits imposed by the government on issuing high-interest loans, Mr. Chisick's company takes off and by the end of the Reagan era, First Alliance opened seven offices across California. Chisick recruits well paid automobile sales representatives, who were as the New York Times states “at ease with the ''hard sell'' but tired of the long evening hours and weekend work that auto sales involved.”

1993-1994
Fuld is named Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) of Lehman Brothers in November 1993 and elected Chairman of the Board of Directors in April 1994. When he took over as CEO, Lehman had annual earnings of $75 million. By 2006, that number grew to $4 billion.

July 1995
Lehman vice president, Eric Hibbert completes a due diligence report examining First Alliance’s mortgage operations. Hibbert concluded that if any firm in the sector could be subject to governmental intervention, First Alliance would be the foremost candidate.

1996
Velda Durney's takes a First Alliance loan on her ranch house in Fremont, California, which her brother built in 1966. She believed she had signed for an 8.5 percent adjustable-rate mortgage for $51,493. But after 26 points in fees were added, her loan was for $64,590.

September 1996
Lehman extends First Alliance a line of credit of up to $ 25 million.

May 2, 1997
Velda Durney files a lawsuit and later wins what would become a landmark case against the company.

1997
Lehman purchases Aurora Loan Services, rapidly expanding its portfolio to $80 billion, making Lehman one of the largest loan-servicing companies in the country.

September 1998
First Alliance, received a letter from the US Department of Justice informing them that they and the Attorney General of Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York and Washington had initiated a joint investigation into their lending practices.

December 30, 1998
Lehman and First Alliance Lehman agreed to provide First Alliance with a $150-million line of credit secured by First Alliance mortgages.

March 2000
The New York Times published an article highly critical of First Alliance's loan origination procedures. The article also implicated Wall Street investment banking firms, and specifically concentrated on Lehman's role in funding First Alliance. A few days later, the ABC News program 20/20 aired a segment containing similar material.

March 23, 2000
First Alliance declares bankruptcy.

April 6, 2000
Federal chair Alan Greenspan signals concern with "abusive lending practices that target vulnerable segments of the population and can result in unaffordable payments, equity stripping, and foreclosure."

July 27 2000
"'Predatory' is really a high-profile word with no definition," Ameriquest chairman Stephen W. Prough tells Congress, urging rollback of subprime regulations.

2003-2004
Home prices rise at approximately 10 per cent, the highest price jump since 1980.

2004
Lehman buys BNC Mortgage. With interest rates low and an expanding economy BNC rapidly increases in size originating loans that are then packaged and bundled by Lehman Brothers.

2005
One in five mortgages issued in the US is a subprime mortgage. Subprime market is worth $600 billion in that year alone.

September 8, 2005
A suit is launched against BNC Mortgage by a group of California women who allege harassment in retaliation for uncovering fraud.

August 2007
Lehman Brothers closes its subprime lender, BNC Mortgage, eliminating 1,200 positions. Lehman said that poor market conditions in the mortgage space "necessitated a substantial reduction in its resources and capacity in the subprime space."

September 7, 2008
Federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which then owned or guaranteed about half of the U.S.'s $12 trillion mortgage market.

September 14, 2008
Lehman Brothers declares bankruptcy.

December 2009
The mortgage crisis continues with 350,000 homes foreclosed on. Moody's Economy.com predicts 2.4 million homes will be lost through foreclosure, auction and other means in 2010.