A major spat between US and UK parties entrenched in the long-running administration of the collapsed Lehman Brothers empire, looks to have been resolved.

In New York, trustees for the liquidation of Lehman Brothers Inc. (LBI) and PwC partner Tony Lomas - one of the joint administrators of Lehman Brothers International (Europe) (LBIE), announced they had reached agreement in principle to resolve their numerous $38bn (£23.7bn) counter claims.

While the agreement is still subject to full approval by a US bankruptcy judge and a British High Court order, it will mean that both parties can then proceed to allocate and distribute funds to the failed bank's long-suffering creditors.

PwC's Tony Lomas, said: 'The resolution of LBIE's claims relating to LBI will allow us to move the case forward materially, enabling us to focus on the client side allocation of over $7bn of client assets. Our immediate priority is to finalise the methodology for distribution of our Omnibus claim recoveries to clients.

'Achieving a final resolution with LBI will be the most significant step in LBIE's administration to date, and having this coincide with our first interim distribution will enable us to plan a much earlier second distribution than would otherwise be the case.'

Over $90bn has already been paid to creditors since the investment bank collapsed in 2008. Included in the terms of the agreement is that LBIE's $15.1bn Omnibus claim against LBI will be settled for $7.5bn in securities and cash, with an additional boost of $600m 'post-filing income'.

Meanwhile, LBIE's $8.9bn house customer claim against LBI will translate into a cash net equity customer claim of $500m, while LBI will stipulate to an LBIE general property claim in the amount of $4.0bn, and LBI's will drop its $13.8bn claim against LBIE.