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BlackRock Inc., the largest publicly traded U.S. asset manager, said third-quarter earnings fell 15%. Investors, unnerved by the financial crisis, pulled money from its stock, bond and money-market funds.

BlackRock’s net income fell to $217.7 million, or $1.62 a share, down from $255.2 million, or $1.94, in 2007.

The bankruptcy last month of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and losses at a money-market fund run by Reserve Management Corp. triggered $53.8 billion in withdrawals from BlackRock’s cash and securities-lending funds.

BlackRock’s assets fell 12% to $1.26 trillion from the prior quarter, driven by $69.1 billion of market depreciation in its stock funds.

Before today, the stock fell 34% this year, compared with the 43% decline in S&P’s index of 16 money managers and custody banks.

Investors contributed $60 billion into BlackRock’s funds in the first half of 2008, more than they invested with any other publicly traded money manager in the U.S.

Previously, BlackRock was picked by the Federal Reserve in March to oversee $30 billion of Bear Stearns Cos.’ investments when the fifth-largest U.S. securities firm agreed to be acquired by JPMorgan Chase & Co and was also called in by UBS AG to help manage a portfolio of mortgage assets.

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