The paper takes advantage of the Italian experience in the Lehman crisis to test the effects of banking shocks on the real decisions of client firms. The analysis exploits plant-level data and models the magnitude of the shock with banks' pre-crisis holding of Dollar-denominated assets and liabilities. After controlling for demand conditions I document the existence of a bank-lending channel affecting the investment rate, the amount of borrowing, and the probability of financial constraints of client firms. This transmission mechanism is characterized by a flight to quality away from risky borrowers, with stronger effects for undercapitalized and illiquid banks or financial institutions that depend more upon bank-based sources of finance.