Credit Suisse is another major player in bond indexes that might be a possibility, he adds. So could Dow Jones, which is big in the equity world, according to Hammers.

Other notable indexing players he lists as possibilities include Merrill Lynch, which his analysts estimate has about 60 major bond benchmarks. "But I doubt they'd be interested right now. They've got too much going on right now and it would probably come down to Bank of America's decision in the end," Hammers said.

Gary Gastineau, head of ETF Consultants, notes that Lehman's index services business probably makes more sense to suitors already in the bond industry. But anyone interested in moving into the fixed-income brokering arena, he adds, might want to double dip.

Mutually Exclusive? 

"Somebody who wanted to get into the bond industry might find Lehman's index business a nice add-on," said Gastineau. "But I don't think they'd want to do the index piece without also picking up Lehman's bond trading operation. And both are very strong parts of the existing company."

Some of the most popular bond exchange-traded funds use Lehman indexes. Those include the iShares Lehman Aggregate Bond index (NYSEArca: AGG) and the Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (AMEX: VTI).

"Even if it goes to bankruptcy, Lehman doesn't hold any of the assets—iShares and other ETF providers do. So what investors need to worry about is the remote possibility that Lehman stops providing the underlying indexes," said Michael Krause, president of AltaVista Independent Research in New York City.

In that case, the bond funds would simply convert to using another firm's benchmarks since plenty of competitors are waiting in the wings to snatch some of Lehman's market share, he added.

Krause doubts that's going to happen, however. "Someone will be interested in a healthy, and I'm sure profitable, Lehman indexing services business," he said.

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