On 31 December 2001, residents of Buenos Aires lined up outside a bank to withdraw cash. A Reuters photograph records the wait under the withdrawal restrictions known as the corralito: people still had deposits, but could no longer freely turn them into cash. The government had imposed limits at the beginning of December in an attempt to halt a run on the banks.
What separated this from an ordinary banking queue was that reaching the counter did not mean reaching all of one's savings. A World Bank analysis found that deposits fell by about US$18 billion—roughly 20 percent—over the course of 2001, while the December restrictions led to public outrage and riots. The line established an order for service, but it also recorded the order in which trust in the financial system was breaking down.