Bernie Madoff's private investment firm in London is expecting a freezing order to be served on its £100 million of assets as US liquidators scramble to salvage something for burnt investors in the catastrophic investment swindle.

Madoff Securities International (MSI), based in Mayfair, is understood to hold about £75 million in cash and government bonds and is understood to be owed about £25 million from liquidating trading positions in recent days.

The firm, which is not directly connected to the US firms at the heart of the scandal, was set up by the Madoff family to manage its personal wealth.

Four of the nine directors are family members, including Bernie, his brother Peter and his two sons Andrew and Mark. They are all listed as authorised personnel on the register of the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

MSI, run by Stephen Raven, a former Warburg executive, closed its investment positions and reverted to cash and bonds last Friday as soon as the scandal broke. The FSA and the London Stock Exchange were immediately contacted and MSI rushed out a statement distancing itself from the swindle. “Our business activities are not involved in any way with the US asset management company with which the reported allegations appear to be concerned,” Mr Raven said.

All trading by MSI was reportedly done using Madoff family money. There are said to be no outside clients.

The other directors listed by the FSA are Christopher Dale, Leon Flax, Malcolm Stevenson and Philip Toop.

The size of total potential losses from the fraud broke through the $22 billion (£14.2 billion) level yesterday as more banks and investment firms admitted to being casualties.

Medici, the Austrian private bank, said it had exposure of $2.1 billion to the fraudster via two of its investment funds. The bank is 75 per cent owned by Sonja Kohn, the Vienna banker, and 25 per cent by Italy's Unicredit.

Swiss Life, the insurer, last night said that it had a maximum exposure of SwFr90 million (£51.5 million) to Madoff via a fund of funds product. Swiss Life, which insisted that its exposure amounts to no more than 0.1 per cent of its assets, is one of a number of Swiss institutions to be facing losses.

Union Bancaire Privée, one of Switzerland's biggest private banks, has admitted to having $1 billion at risk, and two other private banks, Banque Bénédict Hentsch and Neue Privat Bank, have also admitted that they face losses — the latter to the extent of about $48 million.

Meanwhile, Allianz, the insurance group, has emerged as a potential victim, making it the only known German casualty of the fraud to date. It said that the level of exposure was “not significant” although it was yet to establish the sum it stands to lose.

Others admitting yesterday that they are exposed to Madoff included Credit Mutuel-CIC, France's second-largest retail bank, which said that its CIC unit could have a maximum exposure of €90 million (£81 million).

Barclays is understood to have exposure to the Madoff affair, but unlike most other banks has so far declined to quantify it. It also declined to comment on reports that it was broker to MSI in London.

Mn Services, the Dutch fund manager, which manages assets of some pension schemes, said that it had some exposure through one of its investment funds that had invested through Mr Madoff's firm.

Austria's largest pension fund, the €4 billion VBV Pensionskasse, said it had been indirectly hit through investments in EIM, a fund of hedge funds manager.

In Spain, the world's biggest swindle may have harmed the ambitions of Ana Patricia Botín to be the next head of the Santander banking group, experts suggested last night.

Mrs Botín is the daughter of Emilio Botín, the current chairman of Santander, and is seen as his natural heir. Mrs Botín was linked to the fallout from the Madoff affair through her husband, Guillermo Morenés, and Javier Botín Sanz, her brother.

Mr Morenés and Mr Botín Sanz run M&B Capital Advisers, which marketed the Madoff funds, which were part of the New York investor's fraudulent system, to Spanish and Portuguese investors. These private and institutional investors put more than €150 million into Mr Madoff's funds. Mr Morenes never suspected Mr Madoff's funds were a fraud, Pilar Trucios, an M&B spokeswoman said yesterday.

Economists said that although there was no suggestion that Mrs Botín was involved in the fraud in any way, the fallout may mark a sea change for the family-run Santander.

Santander, which in the UK owns Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and the Bradford and Bingley branches, admitted a loss of £2.1billion from the Madoff affair.

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