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When Erin Callan was re-moved yesterday as chief financial officer of Lehman Brothers Holdings, she joined Zoe Cruz as the most senior women on Wall Street to fall victim. Callan followed a half-dozen chief executive officers at financial institutions who have been replaced since the sub-prime mortgage market collapsed a year ago.

"The market, as everyone has discovered, takes no prisoners," said Janet Hanson, a former Goldman Sachs Group executive who in 1997 founded 85 Broads, a women's networking firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut. "I passionately believe that Lehman got caught in a short-selling 'riptide' and as a result, they made the best, although saddest, decision they could on behalf of their employees and shareholders."

Lehman, the fourth-biggest US securities firm, said Callan, 42, who was promoted to CFO six months ago and became the first woman named to the firm's executive committee, would return to the investment banking unit. She was succeeded by co-chief administrative officer Ian Lowitt. The bank also said president Joseph Gregory, 56, would step aside for Herbert McDade, 48, head of the equities business worldwide.

Cruz, 53, was Wall Street's highest-paid female executive as co-president of Morgan Stanley when she was ousted last November by chairman and CEO John Mack. In August, Cruz was 34th in a Forbes magazine list of the 100 most powerful women.