The global financial crisis of 2007-08 was a momentous event in the history of finance and investment. Since 1945, house prices had steadily risen. This saw the development of mortgage-backed securities (MBSs). Investment banks bought mortgages, repacked them with MBSs and sold them on to other banks as one. Many of these were poor-quality securities, though were given low interest rates, which allowed the banks to borrow easily and provided them with free return. Banks went on a spending spree. Ultimately, sub-prime borrowers were not able to remunerate on the repayments. As such, many homeowners could not re-mortgage for cash and, as a consequence, many defaulted. The banks could not pay this spending spree, which lead to widespread bank rescue packages. Attempting to stabilise the financial markets, the UK paid an initial package of £500 billion.