Lehman was a model bank up until September 2008, at least as seen from the outside. The same goes for RBS (even though their acquisition of some of ABN Amro had already encountered some strong head-winds), UBS, Credit Suisse or Deutsche until very recently.
Cant speak for the others, but RBS wasn't a 'model' bank. RBS and Barclays were well known as the risker banks. I don't recall any concerns raised about Northern Rock, or the other ex building societies though. Maybe that's the interesting parallel here, the midsize banks aren't watched as closely and manage to drag down the too big to fail banks.
