Morgan Stanley agreed 12 January to pay $249m to settle criminal and regulatory investigations into allegations that some employees improperly shared information about clients’ stock sales, the Manhattan US attorney’s office said.

The resolution ends a long-running probe into how the bank sold large blocks of stock for institutional investors. Morgan Stanley obtained a non-prosecution agreement, a form of leniency that means it won’t face criminal charges as long as it cooperates with ongoing requests from prosecutors for three years and doesn’t violate its settlement agreement.