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Investors
SIPC steps in when a brokerage firm fails financially, and assets are missing from customer accounts.
SIPC protects customer assets when a SIPC-member brokerage firm fails financially.
Understand how SIPC protection works if you have multiple accounts.SIPC has recovered billions of dollars for investors. Our job is to recover missing cash or securities if your brokerage firm has gone out of business. SIPC does not protect digital asset securities that are investment contracts that are not registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, even if held by a SIPC member brokerage firm.
SIPC has issued Investor Bulletins explaining SIPC’s protection and claims process. Click here for Part I ("SIPC Basics"). Click here for Part II ("Filing a SIPC Claim").
WASHINGTON, DC – August 15, 2014 – The first interim distribution to unsecured general creditors of Lehman Brothers Inc. (LBI) will make available $4.6 billion, according to James W. Giddens, trustee for the liquidation of LBI. The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) today commended the hard work of Trustee Giddens and his attorneys in reaching this major milestone. Distributions are set to commence on or about September 10.
A SIPA liquidation addresses claims of general creditors as well as the ‘customers’ SIPC and the Trustee are charged with protecting.
SIPC President Stephen Harbeck said: "When the SIPA liquidation commenced in September 2008, the possibility of the full satisfaction of customer claims was something SIPC and the Trustee hoped for, but was genuinely uncertain at that time. The fact that customer claims have been fully satisfied, and that unsecured general creditors are now receiving a significant distribution, is an extraordinary achievement. The remarkable distribution of billions of dollars to general creditors is attributable to the diligence and many hundreds of hours of hard work of Trustee Giddens, his counsel, and his staff. SIPC applauds this historic achievement. We also thank U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judges James Peck and Shelley C. Chapman for their countless hours of work, in reaching this important milestone."
The $4.6 billion allocated for this first distribution to unsecured general creditors represents 17 percent of the total amount of these claims. With this planned first interim distribution, more than $110 billion will have been distributed from the LBI estate to customers and general creditors.
SIPC and Trustee Giddens had previously announced in June 2013 that 100 percent of LBI securities customers claims would be fulfilled. With that return of all LBI customer property, no advances from the SIPC Fund were necessary to make LBI securities customers whole. Secured and priority general creditor claims have also been fully satisfied. SIPC and the Trustee also noted that distributions from the LBI estate stand as the largest return of property in history to former customers of a broker-dealer following a bankruptcy and liquidation proceeding.
Full details on the distributions can be found at http://www.lehmantrustee.com.