Some Wall Street brokerages will find out in the next few days how much they will be fined for providing US investors with faulty research during the stock market boom of the late 1990s.

Regulators from the New York state attorney general's office, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and others could levy fines totalling as much as $1bn (�630m) against nearly a dozen financial-services firms.

Spitzer is working on a settlement with Citigroup

The penalties would be part of a settlement between banks and regulators, who have accused the brokerages of issuing glowing reports on firms they privately disparaged.

Citing sources who spoke in London, Reuters news agency reported that regulators were seeking a settlement by the first week of December, the first trading week following the US Thanksgiving Day holiday.

Big fines

The banks and regulators have been in negotiations for months, attempting to reach a deal.

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the SEC, the New York Stock Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers are scheduled to meet the banks individually on Friday and early next week.

Citigroup and Credit Suisse First Boston could be among the banks to suffer the heaviest fines of as much as $200m each.

Grubman is the focus of myriad lawsuits

Although some reports say Citigroup and its Salomon Smith Barney unit could face penalties as high as $500m.

Mr Spitzer has been looking into whether Citigroup's chief executive Sanford Weill urged former analyst Jack Grubman to "review" stock recommendations on telecoms firm AT&T as part of a power struggle.

Among the firms who may learn of their fines in the coming days are Credit Suisse First Boston, a unit of Swiss banking firm Credit Suisse, US Bancorp Piper Jaffray and Bear Stearns.

Settlement deal

Regulators, led by Mr Spitzer, have been keen to sever research divisions from banking divisions legally as a way to prevent conflicts of interest.

The banking industry has baulked, saying research is not profitable enough to be a stand-alone business.

In recent days, investigators have softened their stance, now opting to separate the two functions within a single organisation.

As part of the settlement, investment banks may be required to include at least three independent research reports in addition to the one issued by the investment bank.

In addition, brokerage firms are expected to fund independent research, conducted by companies with no investment-banking operations.

The negotiations have also included talks about how to avoid future conflicts of interest, when analysts work closely with bankers to gain lucrative investment banking business from clients.