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Administrators to Lehman Brothers' today paved the way for the bust bank to return $11 billion (£6.8 billion) of frozen assets to clients as early as next year.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, which controls the collapsed bank's European operations, applied for court approval in London to block any claims for assets after the end of this year, freeing it to start handing back money in early 2010.
About 700 hedge funds and investment firms lost control of $23 billion of assets when Lehman collapsed in September last year, an event which sparked a global financial crisis.
PwC said it has returned about $12 billion of assets since then by negotiating individual agreements but that it had been a painstaking process.
Steven Pearson, joint administrator of Lehman Brothers International Europe and partner at PwC, said the new plan "proposes a compromise on all sides to cut through the multiplicity of complex issues to deliver a fair solution".
The plan has the unanimous support of the creditors' committee and PwC will meet with industry groups over the coming weeks to discuss the detail.
It needs High Court approval and the support of 75% of creditors.
