Banco Santander, one of the largest conduits of investor money to Bernard Madoff, agreed on Tuesday to pay $235m (€168m) to settle potential legal claims by the trustee of the defunct Madoff firm.

If approved by the bankruptcy court overseeing the Madoff firm's liquidation, the bank's settlement with the trustee would raise the amount of assets the trustee has recovered for Madoff investors to more than $1.2bn.