TWO entities belonging to now bankrupt United States investment bank, Lehman Brothers, are still incorporated here and hold licences, said the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Tuesday.
Between them, the two units - Lehman Brothers (LBPL) and Lehman Brothers Singapore (LBSPL) - hold hundreds of millions of dollars in accounts they maintain here, MAS said.
However, lawyers told The Straits Times that the status of the funds was far from clear given the complex money trail, and labyrinth of litigation surrounding Lehman's collapse.
Both entities are incorporated here and hold capital markets services licences issued by MAS.
The central bank said it released the information to help 'affected investors' given the highly unusual circumstances which surfaced from the complexities of the cross-border insolvency of Lehman.
Lehman filed for bankruptcy protection on Sept 15, an event which heralded the financial crisis.
With US$639 billion of assets, it is the largest bankruptcy in US history.
Some investors here lost large sums of money. They bought the defaulted Minibonds arranged by Lehman worth $508 million over the last two years, of which $375 million worth was sold to about 8,000 retail investors through nine distributors.
Many of these investors who were burnt from the investment, are still hoping for cash back. Some are mounting legal challenges on their own or in groups.
Read the full report in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.
