As stock markets continued to tumble, US-based Bank of New York Mellon knocked down what it called misinformed market chatter that it was one of the largest unsecured creditors of Lehman Brothers, the US investment firm that has filed for bankruptcy.

BNY Mellon said it was not its normal policy to comment on individual client relationships but said it had to comment following “inaccurate information circulating in the marketplace regarding our association with Lehman Brothers”.

The bank did not state what the news reports were or who had claimed that it was an unsecured creditor of the bankrupt US bank.

“Often, there is a common misunderstanding of the role that we play when serving as a trustee. Today, it has been incorrectly reported that The Bank of New York Mellon is one of Lehman's largest unsecured creditors. That's not correct. In this situation, our role has been to serve as a trustee for certain Lehman Brothers bond offerings. We have no outstanding loans to Lehman,” the bank said in a statement.

BNY Mellon operates a substantial wealth management business.