International lending has had recurrent horror stories where regional financial crises have imposed large losses on lenders. In the 1980s, there was a Latin American debt crisis in which many countries were unable to service the international debts they had accumulated. In 1994 to 1995, there was the Mexican financial crisis, when Mexico devalued the peso dramatically and required a large loan from the IMF and the U.S. Treasury to avoid defaulting on international debts. More recently was the Asian financial crisis of 1997 to 1998, when a devaluation of the Thai baht in July 1997 was followed by financial panic that spread to Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and, to a lesser extent, South Korea.