AMSTERDAM - Dutch bank ABN Amro said on Thursday that it had reached a settlement costing 278 million dollars (210.6 million euros) to end legal action against it by disgruntled shareholders in collapsed US telecom group WorldCom.
But ABN Amro insisted that in paying the money under an amicable agreement it was in no way accepting that it had made mistakes or was in any way responsible.
However, the bank had judged that its interests lay in ending uncertainty arising from the claims.
The bank declined to comment on the likely effect on its results, noting that the agreement had yet to be approved by a US court. This process would take a few weeks. The bank would then comment on how it would finance the payment, a bank spokesman told AFP.
Investors holding stocks and bonds in WorldCom, among them the retirement fund for employees of the state of New York, had taken action against about 20 investment banks which had handled WorldCom bond issues.
They complained that the banks had not shown sufficient diligence in checking WorldCom's accounts.
Six US banks, Citigroup, Bank of America, Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs and UBS Warburg, have already reached agreements, each paying tens of millions of dollars.
03/10/2005 08:03 GMT