PricewaterhouseCoopers, administrators to Lehman Brothers in London, are said to be preparing a $100bn (£61.5bn) claim against its former parent company in the US, set to be lodged next month.

PwC, which is working with over 100 companies, mostly in the UK but also in continental Europe, said on Sunday: "We’re dealing with a large number of entities and therefore the claims could be as much as $100 billion."

Someone’s going to be busy for a long long time…

Last month thousands of creditors of the bank were dealt a big blow when the High Court refused to sign off administrators’ plans for a quick payout.

Creditors were left facing years of delays in recovering assets when Mr Justice Blackburne said that he could not approve a scheme designed by PwC to speed up the winding down of the bank.

See Reuters for more details.