The Death of Lehman BrothersA year ago on September 15th Lehman Brothers International (Europe)-LBIE，the London subsidiary of Lehman Brothers Holdings, New York-closed for business, leaving 839,000 failed transactions totalling billions of dollars hanging in the air.Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), the administrator, is still trying to sort out most of them, which relate to over 100 separate units of LBIE.It has managed to pay claims of around $13 billion ( ￡8 billion) but wants the American parent to settle up to $ 100 billion more.That may result in litigation, says Tony Lomas, a partner at PWC.In the global Lehman debacle, the British authorities and claimants on the London entity drew the short straw.Lehman Brothers Inc, the broker-dealer in New York, was a relatively simple company.It siphoned billions from the global group days before it went bust.The American authorities then gave it until September 19th to settle its trades.Many of its clients' assets were insured. Barclays, a British bank, bought the business and took over its customer positions, ensuring continuity.LBIE, a complex investment bank, offered no such comfort.Its trades included huge off-exchange dealings in securities and derivatives.
