John Thain, chairman and chief executive of Merrill Lynch, has further put his stamp on the organisation as the bank discontinues origination at First Franklin, a sub-prime mortgage compan, it bought for $1.3bn (€850m) under his predecessor.

Merrill said in a statement it is discontinuing mortgage origination at its First Franklin subsidiary in the US and will explore the sale of Home Loan Services, a mortgage loan servicing unit for First Franklin, because of the deterioration of the sub-prime lending market.