Brokers and traders count the cost of lost colleagues

NEW YORK - Major bond brokerages that were based in the destroyed World Trade Center are trying to assess their human losses, after the attacks that struck at the heart of New York's financial district.

Cantor Fitzgerald, which transacts a quarter of the US Government bond market, and its electronic trading wing, eSpeed, had 1000 employees working on floors 101, 103, 104 and 105 of the 110-storey north World Trade Center tower, the first to be hit by one of the hijacked passenger airliners.

Shell-shocked bond traders at Wall St's big investment banks, many of whom had close relationships with the brokers at Cantor, feared the worst. Cantor said it compiled a preliminary "safe" list of 150 to 200 employees who had been accounted for.

"It is clear that we have incurred a heavy loss of life among our colleagues and friends," said Howard Lutnick, chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald.

Brokers are the intermediaries for buying and selling in the bond market, which is conducted over-the-counter between investors rather than in an exchange. Bond traders develop a personal rapport with the brokers they deal with on a day-to-day basis.

John Santoro, head Government bond trader at SG Cowen Securities, said he had known some Cantor employees and their families for several years.

"It's a collective body blow to the industry and the business, especially for people who have known these people for a long period of time," he said.

"Then the bigger picture is the body blow to the city and the country."

Bank of America, which had 400 people working in offices on floors nine through to 11 and 81 of the No 2 tower, said it was looking for its workers "one by one" and had not located some of them.

About 180 people who attended a financial technology conference at Windows on the World, the 106th floor restaurant in the first tower, had not been accounted for.

Credit Agricole Indosuez, the securities unit of France's No 2 bank, said 86 workers of its Carr Futures unit were missing. Its offices had been on the 92nd floor.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter chairman Philip Purcell said "the vast majority" of its 3500 World Trade Center workers survived the attack.

Deutsche Bank, Europe's largest bank, said its 360 workers in the complex had been evacuated.

There was also an all-clear for 400 employees of Allianz.

- REUTERS

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