A financial crisis is any of a broad variety of situations in which some financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value. A currency crisis, also called a devaluation crisis, is normally considered as part of a financial crisis. In general, a currency crisis can be defined as a situation when the participants in an exchange market come to recognize that a pegged exchange rate is about to fail, causing speculation against the peg that hastens the failure and forces a devaluation.