Brown Halts Emerging-Europe Trades

BT Alex. Brown International, the international investment banking unit of Bankers Trust Corp., said it has stopped trading European emerging-market equities as a result of shrinking business. The markets include Russia, Hungary and other Eastern European countries, said Suzanne Quigley, a spokeswoman for London-based BT Alex. Brown. Quigley refused to say if the operation has been abandoned outright. Bankers Trust, the seventh-largest bank in the U.S., said Sept. 1 that it expected a net loss for the third quarter, after plunging Russian markets and declines in the U.S. left the company with a trading loss of $350 million. BT Alex. Brown International was formed in April after the $129-million purchase of NatWest Markets, the investment banking unit of National Westminster Bank, by Bankers Trust. Bankers Trust shares gained $4.81 to close at $56.88 on the New York Stock Exchange.