金融危机，又称金融风暴。是指一个国家或几个国家与地区的全部或大部分金融指标（如：短期利率、货币资产、证券、房地产、土地价格、商业破产数和金融机构倒闭数）的急剧、短暂和超周期的恶化。 常常随之而来的信用紧缩，是一种货币需求快速增长大于货币供给的状况。在几十年前金融危机基本上等同于挤提，现在则多以货币危机形式出现。股市暴跌有时也是一种金融危机。很多学者提出很多理论来论证金融危机产生的原因，但至目前还没有取得共识.

其特征是人们基于经济未来将更加悲观的预期，整个区域内货币币值出现幅度较大的贬值，经济总量与经济规模出现较大的损失，经济增长受到打击。往往伴随着企业大量倒闭，失业率提高，社会普遍的经济萧条，国家破产， 甚至有些时候伴随着社会动荡或国家政治层面的动荡。

The term financial crisis is applied broadly to a variety of situations in which some financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many financial crises were associated with banking panics, and many recessions coincided with these panics. Other situations that are often called financial crises include stock market crashes and the bursting of other financial bubbles, currency crises, and sovereign defaults. Financial crises directly result in a loss of paper wealth but do not necessarily result in changes in the real economy.