Lehman Brothers Holdings wants to establish a $15m (€10.8m) bonus pool for 2011 for the estimated 175 employees it will need as it continues to try to transform its derivatives deals into cash.

When Lehman collapsed in September 2008, its assets included more than 10,000 derivatives contracts governing more than 1.7 million transactions. No one else, "in or out of bankruptcy" has attempted to unwind a derivatives portfolio of the size and complexity of Lehman's, lawyers for the company said in a filing with the US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.