NEW YORK — JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley on Thursday became the latest banks to reach settlements with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and other regulators as part of an investigation into the collapse of the auction-rate securities market.
The pair of banks will repurchase a combined $7 billion in the troubled securities at face value from investors. Morgan Stanley agreed to pay a fine of $35 million, while JPMorgan will pay a fine of $25 million.
JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley are the third and fourth banks to reach settlements, following deals by UBS AG and Citigroup Inc. last week. Regulators continue to investigate other banks as well.
In addition, Wachovia Corp. was in a final round of talks with Cuomo and was expected to announce a settlement as soon as Thursday evening, according to a person close to the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement had not yet been finalized.
The Charlotte, N.C.-based bank was close to agreeing to buy back $8 billion of auction-rate securities by the end of the year, the person said.
