The chief executive officer of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Richard Fuld, told shareholders “the worst is behind us” in the credit-market contraction that has cost the biggest banks and brokerages $245 billion.

Mr. Fuld, speaking yesterday at the annual shareholders meeting of his New York-based firm, said the “current environment remains challenging.”

The comments echo those of chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Lloyd Blankfein, who told shareholders at the firm’s annual meeting last week that “we’re closer to the end than the beginning” of the crisis. Morgan Stanley’s CEO, John Mack, said last week that the credit-market contraction will probably last “a couple of quarters” longer.

The world’s biggest banks have recorded $245 billion in asset writedowns and credit losses since the beginning of 2007. Lehman, the fourth-largest American securities firm, avoided the bigger losses reported by rivals such as Merrill Lynch & Co., which posted $25.1 billion of writedowns in the second half of last year.

Lehman said on April 9 it had to bail out five short-term debt funds last quarter that were crippled by frozen credit markets. The firm took $1.8 billion of assets from the funds onto its books, which led to a $300 million writedown in the quarter ended February. Earlier this month Lehman raised $4 billion from a stock sale amid concern that it was low on capital.

Mr. Fuld said at the meeting yesterday that the sale was intended to strengthen capital and send a message to investors. He said the firm will sell assets, and can counter market rumors with good performance.