NEW YORK, Nov 14, 2007 (AFP) - Bear Stearns said Wednesday it had slashed its exposure to the US subprime credit crisis and would write off some 1.2 billion dollars in the fourth quarter in mortgage-related investments.

The Wall Street investment bank said its exposure to collateralized debt obligations -- complex vehicles that often include high-risk subprime mortgage debt -- declined to 884 million dollars from 2.07 billion dollars at the end of August.

For the fourth quarter, Bear Stearns expects "lower" results than last year's, the company's chief financial officer, Sam Molinaro, said in a conference call with analysts. He did not provide an estimate of the losses expected due to the investment markdowns.

The 1.2 billion dollars in fourth-quarter writedowns will "suffice," Molinaro said, adding that "the liquidity picture is solid" and the firm is making headway in fast-growing economies such as China.

"The mortgage business has always been an important franchise to us historically. We're trying to be better in managing the risks," he said. "We're not satisfied by the results and the magnitude of the writedowns."

Bear Stearns has continued to lower its exposure to the subprime mortgage market, where loans are given homebuyers with poor credit histories, the CFO said. It now holds 530 million dollars of these high-risk investments, compared with 1.27 billion dollars at the end of August.