Lehman Bros set to release £7 billion of customer assets
After over 12 months it now appears as though administrators to Lehman Bros European operation have finally made a significant breakthrough. Under a Claim Resolution Agreement between the administrators and former clients of Lehman Bros it is believed that 90% of client assets held in company bank accounts, equating to around £7 billion, will be distributed in the short term. However, there is still astonishment that more than 12 months after the event, client assets (which are totally separate from company assets) have still not been returned to their rightful owners.
While the regulators and administrators hope to learn many lessons from the Lehman Bros collapse, an event which shook the financial world, this is of little consolation to customers and hedge funds that have seen their funds tied up for more than 12 months. In a perfect world client funds are held separately from those of the underlying company and in the event of a collapse should be returned fairly quickly. However, the complex nature of the Lehman Bros set up and the significant amount of money involved has led to claims and counter claims and ultimately held up the payout process.
Hopefully, Lehman Bros clients will be receiving their rightful assets in the short term although we have heard these promises before!
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