Tuesday evening business bulletin

Sep 23 2008 By Andrew Mernin

Japanese bank Nomura today stepped in to buy two European arms of bankrupt Lehman Brothers in a move which could safeguard thousands of jobs.

Nomura said it would retain ``a significant proportion" of the 2,500 staff employed by its investment banking and equities businesses.

Around 4,500 UK staff were left facing a bleak future nine days ago when Lehman Brothers - shattered by the credit crunch - filed for bankruptcy protection.

The deal comes a day after Nomura agreed to buy Lehman Brothers' Asia-Pacific business, which includes Japanese and Australian markets.

Barclays - which has already bought Lehman’s North American investment banking and capital markets businesses - was also interested in the Canary Wharf-headquartered European divisions but withdrew yesterday.

Nomura chief executive Kenichi Watanabe said: ``Our immediate priority is to get the equity and investment banking divisions back in business operating under the Nomura name."

A crucial vote on the US Government’s proposed £383bn bank bail-out could be taken as soon as tomorrow.

Since being announced on Friday, wrangling over the huge package between the White House and lawmakers has intensified, with investors also picking over its implications.

It has caused jitters in markets worldwide, with London’s FTSE 100 Index down by around 2% today following a 1.4% drop yesterday.

The scheme’s architects, treasury secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, were today addressing members of Congress to stress the urgency of the situation.

Bernanke said action was ``urgently required to stabilise the situation and avert what otherwise could be very serious consequences for our financial markets and for our economy."

The US Treasury is requesting the authority to issue up to 700 billion US dollars of Treasury securities to finance the purchase of banks’ ``troubled" mortgage-related assets.

These, according to Mr Paulson, have clogged up the financial system and threatened to ``significantly damage the economy".

Cautious customers are putting aside Christmas cash more than a year in advance as the economy turns sour, voucher and savings club Park said today.

The Birkenhead-based group has already begun to take orders for Christmas 2009, in ``a very encouraging sign for the future".

Park has more than 440,000 customers and 102,000 agents, allowing savers to spread the cost of Christmas hampers and other goods through monthly payments.

Chairman Peter Johnson said: ``Park remains resilient against the economic downturn given that the very nature of our business is to help customers save efficiently, a prudent trend in the current economic climate."

The latest trading update also underlined the group’s continued recovery from the high-profile collapse of rival Farepak in 2006.

This shook confidence in the Christmas savings sector and halved Park’s pre-tax profits to £5.2m in the year to March 31.

The pound at 5pm was US$1.8544 compared to US$1.8479 at the previous close while the euro at 5pm was £0.7937  compared to £0.7947 at the previous close.