Lehman Brothers has gone to a bankruptcy judge in a bid to examine the books over at Barclays, claiming that in the rush to sell the UK bank its US businesses, the former Wall Street giant may have got its sums wrong.

The firm says that it has become aware of 'apparent material discrepancies relating to the liabilities Barclays was to assume......(which may) have resulted in a windfall to Barclays at the expense of the estate, its creditors and other parties of interest, in an amount that could reach into billions of dollars'.

The Financial Times reports that a compliance officer over at Morgan Stanley gave a former firm fixed income professional the OK to purchases shares in Citic Resources, believing that she had, in fact, sanctioned a purchase of stock in Citic Pacific (a sister company, and 'the only Citic stock I know from my memory').

The compliance officer also said that, in February 2007, she was unaware that Morgan Stanley had a verbal mandate to work on a bond issuance for Citic Resources, and that the stock appeared on the firm's 'watch list', which prohibits the purchase of shares by firm staff. Du Jun, the banker concerned, now stands accused in the biggest insider-trading trial ever seen in Hong Kong. He claims that he is not guilty of wrongdoing.

Reuters reports that American Express is to cut 4,000 jobs as its continues to pare back on costs. The cuts are in addition to the 7,000 announced last October in a restructure of the business.

Les Echoes reports that senior executives at Credit Agricole told the newspaper in a recent interview that the bank is not interested in a full-blown merger with French rival Societe Generale.

Finally, Bloomberg reports that Heinz Hilgert, the CEO over at WestLB, has resigned as he couldn't gain the support of the bank's main shareholders for his restructuring plan. The news agency quotes Konrad Becker, an analyst at Merck Fink & Co, who said: 'The bank has lost its leader in difficult times. This will make things even more difficult. They now need to find a quick replacement'.

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