Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection on September 15 last year, after a weekend of negotiations failed to find a way of saving the company.
Sharemarkets plunged as the news sank in.
In a separate development that underlined the then tumultuous state of the financial world, Merrill Lynch was taken over by Bank of America for $US50 billion, which helped the finance firm avoid the same fate as Lehman.
Mr McIntyre said in an interview that on the day Lehman collapsed, the NZX-50 index fell 100 points but the Dow Jones was down 500 points. Subsequently, the Dow fell another 3000 points and, even though there had been a recovery this year, it was still down on the value it was 11 years ago.
"We came to work and it was another down day for the Dow. There would be more bad news and the Dow went down again. It was like being in a boxing ring and the first round never ended."
United States President Barack Obama and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner were laying the groundwork for some significant regulation changes around the finance industry, something that Australian and New Zealand banks had moved on already, Mr McIntyre said.
Forsyth Barr broker Suzanne Kinnaird said the Australian and New Zealand banking system and companies did not have the same excesses to correct as those in the US being referred to by President Obama.
"However, we had a finance company sector collapse which, in some ways, was New Zealand's equivalent."
Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, New Zealand had called a parliamentary inquiry into the finance company collapses and introduced a government guarantee on bank and finance company deposits which was to run until October next year. The guarantee had recently been extended until December 2011 but with a more restricted framework, she said.
Banks had also tightened their lending criteria although anecdotally, it had been suggested the banks had eased in recent months.
For sharemarket and financial advisers, there had been changes to the Securities Markets Act 1988, meaning an investment adviser must provide a client with a written disclosure statement before giving advice.
In July, a 10-person, independent committee was formed to develop the code of conduct that financial advisers would be legally obliged to comply with from late 2010, Ms Kinnaird said.
Merrill Lynch and Lehman both expanded aggressively into property-related investments, including the so-called sub-prime mortgages - loans to people on low incomes or with poor credit histories.
Mr McIntyre said the banks were going to their prudential lending limits, packaging the debt up and selling it off their balance sheets and starting over again.
That worked until the loans started defaulting.
The reorganisation of the banking sector meant they now made greater provision for bad debts.
"The survivors will get stronger. That is reflected in our outlook for banks. The banks started it all but they will be a lot stronger in the finish."
The collapse of the banks saw credit markets take a tumble, Mr McIntyre said.
Younger brokers had never seen anything like it before. Equity markets plunged, the cost of capital soared and companies had difficulty funding themselves.
The rising cost of capital spread into the finance sector and some finance companies did not survive.
Uncertainty spread throughout the corporate sector and, suddenly, no-one had any idea of a fair price for shares.
"We saw these ridiculous movements in the price of blue chip shares. In the new year, it was another day, another down day. There are a few grey hairs in this office. It was stressful at times but also an exciting time to have worked through.
"Finally, we got some snippets of good news when seasoned investors were back in the market."
Warren Buffett started "nibbling away" in the market and gave investors hope that the bottom of the collapse had been reached, he said.
The bottom was eventually reached on March 9.
The world's finance industry had become so entwined through globalisation that when a US banker pushed a button, it had an effect in New Zealand six hours later, Mr McIntyre said.
