LONDON -- Global economic policy makers are just beginning to grapple with a key issue rising out of last year's bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings: how to react if -- or when -- the next big global bank spins out of control.

While the furor over bankers' bonuses has captured most of the headlines, policy makers are in the process of assigning each of the world's 25 most complex international banks to a multinational crisis-management team to draw up contingency plans if they run into trouble.

But...