Administrators of the British branch of Lehman Brothers, the US investment bank that collapsed last year, said overnight that they were preparing claims of up to $US100 billion ($A119 billion) against the parent company.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) is working on behalf of more than 100 Lehman entities in Europe to establish who is owed what following the bank's collapse in September 2008, which sent the global financial system into turmoil.
Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection on September 15, 2008, and cut its ties with its subsidiaries including the British-based European arm.
Administrators PWC have until a September 22 deadline to make their claims.
"The parent company, Lehman Brothers Holding, and its various USA subsidiaries that are in chapter 11 (bankruptcy protection), have all established a deadline for claims to be submitted in the next few weeks," a PWC spokeswoman said.
"We're dealing with a large number of entities and therefore the claims could be as much as 100 billion dollars.
"These claims are exceptionally complex and we anticipate a large amount of further work in dealing with these claims."
A significant number of claims relate to past guarantees from the former bank to its global subsidiaries, she said, while the issue of millions of trades left frozen when Lehman collapsed adds to the complexity.
The spokeswoman added that PWC had spent a lot of time working with other administrators to harmonise their approach.
"If this can be achieved then it should reduce the likelihood of affiliates suing each other in pursuit of amounts that are owed between the different Lehman estates," she said.
AFP
