Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Concerns that Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. may not weather the credit turmoil have failed to trigger the same kind of market-wide panic that preceded the collapse of Bear Stearns Cos., trading in credit-default swaps on the biggest securities firms shows.

The CHART OF THE DAY shows credit-default swaps protecting against a Lehman default soared to a record yesterday even as Merrill contracts fell, Goldman closed 77 basis points below its March peak and Morgan Stanley was more than 110 basis points below its high. In the days leading up to Bear Stearns's collapse on March 14, the credit swaps on all of the brokers jumped to a record.

``One of the interesting things about Lehman versus Bear Stearns is that the world is being much more patient,'' said Michael Shaoul, chief executive officer of Oscar Gruss & Son Inc., a New York-based brokerage. ``People aren't going home at night and saying, Is there going to be a counterparty failure across the street? There's a sort of willingness to trust the system to find a solution.''

Lehman also remains well below the record Bear reached two days before the Federal Reserve backed an emergency sale of the firm to JPMorgan Chase & Co. partly to avoid a wave of losses across derivatives markets. As market-makers, both Bear Stearns and Lehman have been among the top 10 counterparties to credit- default swaps trades, according to rankings by Fitch Ratings.

Credit-default swaps on Lehman soared to a record 610 basis points yesterday, according to broker Phoenix Partners Group, about 200 basis points below Bear Stearns's peak before its emergency sale to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

``The lesson from Bear Stearns is that the bondholder was made good,'' Shaoul said. ``It's questionable whether the authorities are willing to let a large broker-dealer actually go through a bankruptcy with all the counterparty implications that come with that.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Shannon D. Harrington in New York at sharrington6@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 10, 2008 19:40 EDT