Standard Chartered has dropped attempts to rescue its $7.1 billion (£3.6 billion) structured investment vehicle (SIV), Whistlejacket, a week after it went into receivership.

Standard Chartered said that it had pulled its offers, which included taking all of Whistlejacket's assets on to its balance sheet, because of the "pact of continuing deterioration in the market for certain asset classes and the impracticality of completing any proposal within the confines of the receivership".

Deloitte, the receiver appointed to Whistlejacket, said that it was now seeking other solutions, including talks with other banks that might like to buy the vehicle.

Neville Kahn, the Deloitte partner handling Whistlejacket's receivership, declined to name that banks that he was talking to, but ruled out a firesale of the SIV's assets, saying that there was "absolutely, categorically, no need" for a quick sale of the investments. One solution, he said, could be to hold on to Whistlejacket's assets to maturity.

"We're trying to work through this as quickly as we can but there is no timescale," Mr Kahn said.

SIVs are off-balance sheet vehicles that issue short and medium-term debt. The cash raised is used to buy longer-term assets, such as collateralised debt obligations holding complex credit products. SIVs ran into trouble during the credit crunch last year, when the value of their underlying investments plunged and investors who bought SIVs' short-term debt fled the market. Whistlejacket holds only a small amount of US sub-prime mortgage debt.

SIVs have capital investors, who put in cash that is leveraged with the money raised as short-term debt. Last week the value of Whistlejacket's assets fell to less than half of the amount of its start-up capital. The fall below 50 per cent was a pre-set trigger for calling in the receivers. Deloitte is also acting as receiver for a SIV set up by Cheyne Capital Management, the hedge fund, and another run by the German bank IKB.

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