Ménard scandal
The 2001-2007 Baptistois financial crisis, popularly referred to as the Ménard scandal (Principean: Scandale Ménard), was an economic and political event in Saint-Baptiste between March 2001 and September 2007. The crisis involved the ruling government of Prime Minister Emmanuel Ménard (1999-2007) alongside Banque Sainte-Anne, the country's largest bank, and Amandine-based investment company and financial services firm Crédit Assolin.
The revelation of the Baptistois government using falsified information to assure the liquidity of Banque Sainte-Anne set the relatively small Baptistois financial sector in a spiral in early 2001, before a small recovery gave way to what has been called "one of the most dramatic collapses of a national bank in Marceaunian history" in mid-2004, with Banque Sainte-Anne defaulting on all of its loans after CEO Yves-Baptiste Dessolines publicly announced the bank was on the brink of insolvency.
The economic situation worsened in 2005 and 2006, leading to a general strike in the last months of 2006. The Ménard government's defeat in the snap February 2007 election re-assured markets and foreign investors as the incoming government of Cyrille Bachelet set out on an attempt to regulate and reorganize the Baptistois financial sector. Despite this, most financial experts claim that Saint-Baptiste did not recover fully from the effects of the crisis until 2012 at the earliest.