Answer:
the decline in the health of many large financial firms and banks
Step-by-step explanation:
To say that major financial institutions suffered due to the great recession is like hitting your head on purpose and then blaming someone else for your own actions. Large financial institutions and banks were the cause of the great recession and since they were "too big to fail" American taxpayers paid for their mistakes.
The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was a government program that basically lent money to self-injured banks and also bought toxic assets from them. Toxic assets means the junk securities (mortgage backed securities) that they traded between each other.