Brazilian mailmen became unlikely victims of Argentina's defaultlast week after a $168 million fund used by their pension planrecorded a loss on most of its assets.

The fund operated by Bank of New York Mellon Corp.'s local unitwrote down its value by about 51 percent after losses on securitieslinked to Argentine government debt, according to a regulatory filingyesterday. While the statement didn't identify the entity that isthe fund's sole investor, all signs point to Postalis, the pensionmanager serving about 130,000 current and former postal workers inBrazil.

Postalis, which had 8 billion reais (US$3.5 billion) in assetsaccording to the latest data available, said in statements as earlyas 2011 and as recently as May that it had invested in the fund.Postalis's press office declined to comment.