Barclays looking at Lehman assets
British bank Barclays passed on buying Lehman Brothers, but now that Lehman has filed for bankruptcy protection, Barclays might jump back in and try to grab some of Lehman's assets. Megan Williams reports.
Barclays sign (Getty Images)
More on The Economy, International, Europe, Mergers/Acquisitions
TEXT OF STORY
Stacey Vanek-Smith: Britain's third-largest bank might make a big buy in the U.S. This past weekend, Barclays turned down the chance to buy Lehman Brothers before it went under. Now it looks like Barclays is back to buy up the scraps, as Megan Williams reports.
Megan Williams: Lehman Brother's employees are holding their breath as they wait for a last-ditch offer from Barclays to buy up some of the company. The UK bank is likely interested in Lehman's broker-dealer businesses, which would mean keeping on 10,000 Lehman's employees. Many of the bank's 26,000 employees got pink slips yesterday.
As the market waits for a deal to come through, the value of Europe's banks, including Barclays, is falling. Chief Euro Area economist Jacques Cailloux says even if a deal were to go through, for now, it would have little effect on the overall economy.
Jacques Cailloux: What we're seeing here is a sever loss of confidence across assets. And, I think it will take some time even if we get some good news from one side of the market, the market is likely to remain quite fragile in the coming months.
In the meantime, the European Central Bank is frantically pumping money into the sector. Since yesterday, it's injected more than $140 billion.
I'm Megan Williams for Marketplace.
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