Citigroup and Morgan Stanley agreed to value their Morgan Stanley Smith Barney brokerage joint venture at $13.5bn, handing a victory to Morgan Stanley following a months-long dispute.

The agreement paves the way for Morgan Stanley in coming years to take full ownership of the company at a favourable valuation, and could trigger a third-quarter writedown at Citigroup, which has carried the brokerage unit on its books at a higher value. Under the plan announced Tuesday, Morgan Stanley gets access to $48bn in deposits by 2015.