Eliot Spitzer, the New York State Attorney General, has reached a settlement agreement with the remaining banks that were part of the investigation into the conflicts of interest at Wall Street firms, despite coming under pressure to hand the money over to investors.

In April of this year 10 investment banks reached a $1.4bn (€1.3bn) global settlement with the US regulators after documents were unearthed showing that some analysts defrauded or misled investors with false "buy" recommendations due to pressures from investment banking.