Fund execs see prolonged crisis, shades of 1929

By Laurence Fletcher

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Top fund executives are resigned to the probability of a credit crisis lasting many months or even years, with some looking back as far as the Wall Street crash of 1929 for a possible comparison.

Few speakers at the Reuters Funds Summit in Luxembourg were ready to be contrarian and call the bottom to a crisis that began with the U.S. subprime meltdown last year and has seen banking groups Northern Rock and Bear Stearns receive central bank support.

"The Fed interest rate cut is interesting but that isn't going to save the financial world. There's still a huge degree of uncertainty out there," Charlie Porter, chief executive of Thames River Capital, said in an interview on the sidelines of the Summit.

"The thing about this one (crisis) is that it's totally different ... I've been in the industry 25 years and it's very different to what we've seen before."

U.S. stocks on Tuesday posted their biggest one-day gains in more than five years after the Fed cut its benchmark interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point.

Schroders (SDR.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) vice chairman Massimo Tosato sees central banks able to resolve the crisis in 12 to 18 months, while Polar Capital (POLR.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Chief Executive Mark Kary also sees prolonged economic and market troubles.

"The consensus in the market is that some time in the summer will be the right time to buy ... I think I would prefer to be more cautious. This isn't going to be a short-lived economic downturn. It will be something more significant... Will it be like 1929? I don't think we know," said Kary.

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