Lehman's London staff could find a home at Barclays

More than 2,000 of the Lehman Brothers staff who lost their jobs when the investment bank collapsed on Monday could be taken on by Barclays, the Standard can reveal this afternoon.

Barclays has agreed to pay £140million for Lehman Brothers North America which includes its share, currency and commodity trading business in New York.

The equivalent business in Canary Wharf which employed 4,000 people until two days ago, is not part of the deal.

But the Standard has learned that Barclays has launched a major operation to entice entire teams across from the Lehman London operation to Barclays Capital, which is also based in Canary Wharf.

Barclays has started detailed discussions with senior Lehman executives in London about taking on bankers, brokers and traders. These talks were under way well before last night's deal was signed in New York.

John Varley, chief executive of Barclays, told the Standard: "Nothing's been ruled in or out but we feel that we are more likely to take on people rather than businesses from Lehman outside the US."

Last night's deal saw Barclays take over around 9,000 Lehman bankers, almost all based in New York.

Barclays' investment banking business Barclays Capital, which is run by its £21 million-a-year president Bob Diamond, employs 16,000 people worldwide. Mr Diamond handled the bulk of the negotiations in New York over the weekend when Barclays pulled out of buying the whole of Lehman and then over the past two days when Barclays bought just the investment bank.

Barclays Capital's head of European investment banking and debt capital markets, 45-year-old John Winter, is leading the bid to poach Lehman Brothers bankers from under the noses of rival investment banks and the headhunters who opened for business at Canary Wharf on Monday.

People at Lehman in London, even those who were sent home on Monday, had kept in touch with their colleagues in New York as discussions with Barclays came to a head.

They had been advised by their American colleagues not to sign on with any other bank until a Barclays deal was done.

This makes sense because not only has Barclays bought the majority of Lehman's investment bankers in America but it has also bought all the specialist computer systems and infrastructure needed to handle all its corporate clients.

Barclays is betting it is able to make the Lehman people offers which will see them transfer the few hundred yards across from Lehman's 25 Bank Street office to Barclay Capital's headquarters in North Colonnade without forking out millions of pounds to buy the business.