Lehman Brothers couldn't convince regulators

October 6, 2008 | By Jim Kim

Lehman Brothers had a plan to save itself, not unlike Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, but they just couldn't convince regulators. According to the Financial Times, Lehman also wanted to convert to a commercial bank--and it wanted more government-granted liquidity. "The Fed, however, was not willing to change the rules over which types of collateral it would accept in exchange for credit," the FT notes. It must have been galling when CEO Dick Fuld watched the Fed allow Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to convert just two months later. So why them and not Lehman? That may be something we'll hear more about in the future. It may have been that the crisis had progressed to the point that the Fed had no choice. They also seem to have been impressed by the way Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley coordinated their efforts. Fuld may say something when he appears in front of a Congressional hearing today.

For more:
- here's the FT article