HSBC said it has agreed to pay $62.5m to investors in a fund it serviced that lost money from the Bernard Madoff fraud, in what is thought to be the first settlement by a fund custodian related to the huge Ponzi scheme.

In a regulatory filing, the bank said it has entered a settlement with investors in Thema International Fund who brought a class-action lawsuit pending in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, and that it shouldn't be construed as an admission of wrongdoing or liability.