Wall Street Prepares for Potential Lehman Bankruptcy Filing Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- A group of banks and brokers began preparing for a potential Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. bankruptcy filing today, addressing outstanding trades that the company has in over-the-counter derivatives markets. Financial firms have started ``netting'' Lehman trades on credit, equity, interest-rate, foreign exchange, and commodity derivatives, according to a statement from the International Swaps and Derivatives Association e-mailed to Bloomberg News. ``ISDA confirms a netting trading session will take place between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. New York time for over-the-counter derivatives,'' the ISDA said. ``Trades are contingent on a bankruptcy filing at or before 11:59 p.m. New York time, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008. If there is no filing, the trades cease to exist.''
Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- A group of banks and brokers began preparing for a potential Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. bankruptcy filing today, addressing outstanding trades that the company has in over-the-counter derivatives markets.
Financial firms have started ``netting'' Lehman trades on credit, equity, interest-rate, foreign exchange, and commodity derivatives, according to a statement from the International Swaps and Derivatives Association e-mailed to Bloomberg News.
``ISDA confirms a netting trading session will take place between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. New York time for over-the-counter derivatives,'' the ISDA said. ``Trades are contingent on a bankruptcy filing at or before 11:59 p.m. New York time, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008. If there is no filing, the trades cease to exist.''
That is, if A is owed x by Lehman, and Lehamn owes x to B, A and B agree to eliminate Lehman and to say that A is owed x by B.
That's a good thing, but preparing for this means that the likelihood of bankruptcy is not remote. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Very nice use of embedded exotic options. A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith
What's a "good bank"?
Maybe it's like injuns - the only good bank is a dead bank.... "Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky
Home of the Brooklyn Bridge, which somehow inevitably comes to mind these days. The Fates are kind.
Banks do not operate in a closed microsystem (though they might like to). Value is ultimately social. As someone pointed out - the value of a mobile phone when lost and thirsty in a large un-networked desert is zilch. The ownership or income worth of commercial or industrial property, for example, is not in the cement. It's in the space. You can't be me, I'm taken
I think in this case it's more like "assets worthless as long as the market has no liquidity - and pockets not deep enough t make it through".
Keynes said "the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent". A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith
