[BITList] not again?

[Colin Taylor]

Merrill suspends trader over suspected $400 million loss
Fri Mar 6, 2009 6:42pm EST Email | Print | Share | Reprints | Single  
Page[-] Text [+]
1 of 1Full Size
LONDON (Reuters) - Merrill Lynch has suspended a currency trader in  
its London office after he ran up suspected losses of more than $400  
mln (284 mln pounds), the Financial Times reported.

Quoting "people familiar with the situation," the newspaper's Saturday  
edition said the trader had been suspended after trades on Norwegian  
and Swedish currencies went wrong.

The losses, if confirmed, will cause more financial headaches for Bank  
of America, the vast banking and investment house that bought Merrill  
Lynch last September.

In a statement issued earlier on Friday, Merrill said it was  
investigating an "irregularity" in its London trading positions.

"Senior managers of the business are focused on the issue and believe  
the risks surrounding possible losses are under control," the company  
said in a statement.

The sum involved pales in comparison to the 4.9 billion euros lost by  
Societe Generale trade Jerome Kerviel in 2007 and the $1.4 billon that  
Barings trader Nick Leeson lost in 1995, an amount that sunk his bank.

(Reporting by Luke Baker; editing by Andrew Roche)


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090306/bffd0d52/attachment.shtml 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: r.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 4789 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090306/bffd0d52/attachment.jpeg