Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. may complete billions of dollars in trades and unwind transactions that were pending two months ago when it filed the biggest bankruptcy in history, under an accord with European affiliates.

The deal gives the firm access to information systems in Europe, which it said were ``sealed off'' by its bankruptcies on both sides of the Atlantic. Without the accord, the New York- based company said it ``cannot execute trades or even obtain information on current positions,'' key requirements for paying creditors owed more than $613 billion.

Lehman Brothers International Europe, which ran Lehman's London-based prime brokerage, had about 3,500 asset managers, including hedge funds, as clients. The customers haven't known the status of their positions since Lehman's bankruptcy on Sept. 15 froze at least $65 billion in brokerage assets.

``Each day that passes, the debtors risk losing value that would otherwise be preserved and maximized for the benefit of their estates and all stakeholders,'' said Shai Waisman, a U.S. lawyer representing Lehman, in court papers filed today. The European positions freed up by the accord consist of more than one million trading positions and ``billions of dollars,'' Waisman said.

Amid Dispute

Lehman's European operations had about $1.2 trillion in assets and liabilities as of Sept. 15, when Lehman filed for bankruptcy, with $17 billion more in assets than liabilities at that point, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the administrators directing the insolvency, said today.

The agreement comes amid a dispute between Lehman's European and U.S. operations over which bankrupt estate owes the other money. Lehman U.S. lawyers said the parent company has the right to $8 billion it allegedly pooled from foreign subsidiaries on Sept. 12, three days before its bankruptcy filing.

Lehman's European units, unwinding in the U.K. in administrative proceedings, want the money back. It's unclear whether the funds still exist.

The new accord, which Lehman said took four weeks to negotiate, includes an effort to keep European office staff from leaving and pay them bonuses ``from time to time,'' Lehman told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Peck in New York. The deal requires court approval, which Lehman said it will seek at a hearing Nov. 20.

`Hefty Premium

``There is a hefty premium on maintaining Lehman Europe's employees and their familiarity with'' more than a million trading positions, including ``numerous exotic financial instruments,'' Lehman said in a court filing yesterday.

Only certain people ``fully understand the positions and the counterparties involved and it would be extremely costly and unfeasibly slow to unwind these positions'' without them, Lehman said.

Lehman's ``enormous book of business in Europe, worth billions of dollars, sits unmanaged'' because it ``cannot access the employees and information systems that once controlled it,'' Lehman said in court papers.

The filing coincides with a gathering today of hundreds of Lehman Brothers International creditors and their lawyers at London's O2 Center, a venue usually used for rock concerts.

A list of ``all-known counterparties'' in the European bankruptcy cases compiled by administrators at PricewaterhouseCoopers runs to 97 pages. Lehman has said it sought court protection due to bad investments linked to subprime home loans.

The U.S. case is In re Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., 08- 13555, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporters on this story: Jeff St.Onge in London at jstonge@bloomberg.net and; Tiffany Kary in New York at tkary@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 14, 2008 17:09 EST