Wall Street operates now from different locations

BRIAN KELLEHER

NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 18: WALL Street firms opened for business on Monday, thanks to creative footwork by executives forced to assemble new trading desks and brokerage offices after the World Trade Center attack.

Some companies converted nearby New Jersey training centres into trading floors, while hundreds of brokers trooped to offices in midtown Manhattan or worked from home. Meanwhile, Wall Street workers coped with a dramatic downturn in stock prices, as major indexes fell sharply despite an interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve.

Two of the nation’s largest investment banks — Merrill Lynch& Co Inc and Lehman Bros Holdings Inc — were forced out of their World Financial Center headquarters, across the street from the ruins of the World Trade Center. “It’s very crowded, and everyone seems to be doing business,” said Lehman spokesman Bill Ahearn, speaking from Jersey City, New Jersey, which had served as a Lehman training centre. Lehman had more than 5,000 employees in downtown Manhattan, many of whom were sent to New Jersey on Monday. The company’s London and Tokyo offices also were helping. “So far, knock on wood, everything seems fine,” Ahearn said.

One other major securities firm based near the World Trade Center is Salomon Smith Barney, a unit of Citigroup Inc. Salomon moved its downtown operations to contingency locations in New Jersey and midtown. Brokers unable to get into their offices headed to other branches in the New York area, a spokeswoman said.

Even those far from the action were skittish about going to work. “It is just stressful, stressful to be here,” said one employee at Credit Suisse First Boston. The main offices of CSFB, the investment banking arm of Credit Suisse Group Inc, are a few miles from the World Trade Center. (Reuters)