Lehman Brothers, the fourth-biggest US investment bank, said that it had liquidated three investment funds in its first quarter after “market disruptions”. The value of the assets held by these funds was about $1bn. Lehman said it had also bought some “deteriorated assets” from certain funds for $800m.

Both sets of assets were included in the company’s earnings report on 29 February, and are now managed in its capital markets fixed income business.