Platts Bars Lehman From Trading Oil Contracts

From Reuters: Platts review bars Lehman from key oil trade window:

Energy pricing agency Platts has put Lehman Brothers (LEH) under a temporary review that effectively excludes it from trading benchmark-setting oil contracts, four sources close to the matter said on Monday.

The exact cause of this move? It is not clear yet at this point. But, regardless of this fact - with asset writedowns expected to amount close to $3 billion for the second quarter, followed by the current exclusion from trading during Platt’s price-setting window ; this latest episode for Lehman Brothers, as the number 4 Wall Street Bank, it’s obviously quite a setback.

Lehman Brothers and Platts - a unit of McGraw-Hill Co Inc (MHP), have yet to comment on the matter. It will be interesting to see how this story will develop from here.

Comments

[bm1087]

It would be nice to add a few more to the list: GS - MER. LEH is just trying to make up for losses, and in doing so is hurting every consumer and putting blue collar companies at risk of insolvency. AMR and GM employ a lot of people; not everyone works on Wall Street.

[RichardWhitney]

Maybe this saves LEH from being long WTIC when Iran and Saudi Arabia have had enough and they sell into those juicy future deliveries before the decline. Saddam knew that trick!