J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. has reached a settlement that will return an estimated $546 million to MF Global Holdings Ltd. customers, likely bringing an end to a major chapter in customers' effort to recover money from the securities firm's 2011 collapse.
J.P. Morgan, the trustee for the failed company's brokerage unit, and lawyers representing customer plaintiffs in the case filed their settlement agreement after finalizing terms in recent days, according to a person familiar with the process.
Under terms of the settlement, filed in court Tuesday, J.P. Morgan is set to pay $100 million to reimburse customers, while also releasing claims it had on $417 million in MF Global funds that it had previously returned to the trustee representing customers, James W. Giddens.
J.P. Morgan also is returning $29 million related to agreements including an MF Global credit facility.
J.P. Morgan is expected to incur an expense of about $107.5 million involved with the settlement, including attorney's fees. The remaining money in the settlement was largely MF Global money tied up at the bank.
"We are pleased to have reached this settlement, which will help restore funds to MF Global's customers," a spokesman for the bank said. "The agreement resolves all outstanding matters between J.P. Morgan Chase and the MF Global estate, its customers and creditors."
"This is a significant milestone in returning assets to former customers," said James W. Giddens, Trustee for MF Global Inc. "This is a favorable and economically sound agreement ending what would have been a costly, protracted, and uncertain legal battle. Without the agreement, additional substantial distributions would have been delayed for at least two or three years."
The settlement should free up the trustee to pay an additional $300 million for customers of MF Global, pending court approvals, according to people familiar with the matter.
That would add about five cents on the dollar to the accounts of customers who are slowly getting their money back.
The settlement will also make it easier for Mr. Giddens to recover hundreds of millions of dollars stuck in the U.K. that had been tentatively settled under an earlier agreement, these people said.
Ultimately, the latest settlement will bring customers who dealt on U.S. exchanges closer to 95 cents on the dollar and customers overseas to a range of 50 cents to 80 cents on the dollar, according to one estimate from a person involved in the case.
The settlement, which needs court approval in coming months to be finalized, would mark another milestone for MF Global customers who have been pushing to recover cash misplaced from their accounts in the days around the firm's Oct. 31, 2011, bankruptcy filing.
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