Former Lehman chief blames US regulators for collapse

Former Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld believes the investment bank may have been able to survive if US authorities had given it the same assistance as its rivals.

In prepared testimony to the commission investigating the credit crisis in Washington, Fuld says the bank gave regulators a number of options which could have possibly averted the September 2008 collapse, or at least allow an orderly unwinding or takeover. While the regulators rejected a number of the bank's proposals, Fuld says the authorities did not allow Lehman to participate in its Primary Dealer Credit Facility, which it made available to rivals the day it told Lehman to file for Chapter 11. "Only Lehman was denied that expanded access. I submit, that had Lehman been granted tha...