Two units of Franklin Resources, the US mutual fund company, will pay $20m (€15m) to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that it used fund assets to steer customers to its products and failed to disclose the practice to investors or regulators.

The SEC said in a statement that the units entered into inadequately-disclosed agreements with 39 broker-dealers and used $52m in fund assets to compensate those firms in return for the preferential marketing of Franklin mutual funds. The agreements were made between 2001 and 2003.