This includes National Westminster , which in 1997 off-loaded parts of its troubled equities division to Bankers Trust New York .

FORBES: HSBC's I-Banking Bet

Then there's Merrill Lynch, Bankers Trust New York and American Airlines.

FORBES: Give 'em rope

Only recently, for example, the takeover of Bankers Trust by Deutsche Bank was held up for months by New York regulators who demanded a greater effort by German companies to retrieve Holocaust-era assets.

ECONOMIST: Holocaust reparations

The spin-off should also ease the completion of the Bankers Trust deal and help Deutsche Bank to list its shares in New York.

ECONOMIST: German banking��s industrial revolution