LONDON - Creditors of the European division of the defunct American bank Lehman Brothers may receive all their money back, according to a report from the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The announcement follows a series of legal settlements with Lehman Brothers’ business units in the United States, Switzerland and Luxembourg that has freed up an additional $9.1 billion to repay creditors of Lehman Brothers International Europe.
In November, PricewaterhouseCoopers, which is overseeing the return of assets to creditors and money to clients of the European unit of Lehman Brothers, paid a total of $11 billion to more than 1,500 creditors.
The accounting firm said it was now planning to distribute a new round of funds to creditors, as well as the first refund of clients’ money, later this month.
“To be able to advise ordinary unsecured creditors that we now have a reasonable chance of eventually repaying their claims in full marks a significant milestone,†said Tony Lomas, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, in statement. “There is still a lot to do before finalizing the wind-down but we do expect to pay a second, significant dividend to creditors in the near future.
The announcement follows a five-year legal fight following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.
Lehman Brothers International Europe has been the subject to ongoing legal battles with local subsidiaries and clients after the division failed to keep separate its own money from that of its customers.
PwC has previously said that it could take more than a decade for all of the Lehman Brothers’ creditors to be compensated from the collapse of the bank’s European business.
