As a result of losses on Lehman's commercial paper, a prominent money market mutual fund announced on September 16 that it had "broken the buck" – that is, its net asset value had fallen below $ per share. Over the subsequent several weeks, investors withdrew more than $ billion from so-called prime money funds.
3 Conditions in short-term funding markets, including the interbank market and the commercial paper market, deteriorated sharply. Equity prices fell precipitously, and credit risk spreads jumped. The crisis also began to affect countries that had thus far escaped its worst effects.