Bankruptcy Judge James Peck ruled yesterday that repurchase agreements don't qualify for "customer status" in a failed brokerage business, a blow to a group of banks that had sought equal footing with customers in the liquidation of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s broker-dealer, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Judge Peck said that a "contractual obligation" by Lehman to return the securities is "no substitute" for an account statement that includes an inventory of actual securities held by the broker-dealer on the customer's behalf. The repo counterparties, he said, didn't have such statements.
