Bear Stearns /ˌbeə ˈstɜːnz $ ˌber ˈstɜːrnz/ BrE AmE
a US ↑ investment bank which was taken over by the FINANCIAL SERVICE s company JP Morgan Chase after it nearly went out of business. In March 2008 the bank had to ask for EMERGENCY FUNDS from the Federal Reserve and JP Morgan Chase. The bank had suffered huge losses because of a drop in the value of two of its ↑ hedge fund s and because of the ↑ credit crunch caused by the ↑ decline in the market for SUBPRIME MORTGAGE s .