JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley on Thursday joined other Wall Street banks in agreeing to repurchase auction-rate securities, a type of long-term debt which has lost a lot of their value, bringing the total size of the industry buy-back to $48bn.

But in a notable difference from previous settlements, the US Securities and Exchange Commission was not party to the latest bank agreements with Andrew Cuomo, the New York attorney-general, and a taskforce of 12 state securities regulators.