Lehman Brothers has become the first investment bank to raise a fund targeted specifically at the distressed debt fallout from the sub-prime lending crisis of the summer.

Lehman has raised $3bn (€2bn) to invest in discounted leveraged buyout loans following in the footsteps of investment banks amassing funds to buy up debt orphaned as a result of the collapse of the US sub-prime lending market in the summer. The move follows Lehman's acquisition of distressed-debt fund Lightpoint Capital earlier this summer.