Hans-Jochem Lüer’s single most noted participation in the field of international transactions was his role in the Herstatt Bank litigation. Therefore, it seems fitting to honor him with a contribution to the subject of cross-border bank insolvency, especially considering that recent developments in the European Union and in the United States now implicate issues of federal-state relations that were not yet on the horizon a generation ago. This paper will focus in particular on the US side of the issue, even if it is clear that no purely national discussion can or should ignore the EU Directives in the field.