David Li, a former Dow Jones board member, has reached a tentative agreement with US securities regulators to pay more than $8m to settle allegations of insider trading during last year’s takeover battle for the US media group, the Financial Times has learnt.

Mr Li, chairman and chief executive of his family’s Hong Kong-based Bank of East Asia, would neither admit nor deny wrongdoing, according to people familiar with the talks between Mr Li and the US Securities and Exchange Commission.