PwC has announced that as joint administrators of Lehman Brothers International (Europe) (LBIE), it will be paying out 100% of the money owed to counterparties when the bank failed, and is now on course to return a total of £40bn to creditors.

PwC will be distributing $7.8bn (£4.9bn) to counterparties in the Omnibus Trust, which was set up to deal with the highly complex issues surrounding the onward distribution of proceeds recovered from the bank under a settlement agreement struck in June this year. The firm said there was also the prospect of a further 'modest' distribution next year once remaining tax and other reserves have been addressed.

This distribution is in addition to the £13.7bn of trust assets returned to former customers and distributions of £5.9bn to unsecured creditors.

Russell Downs, joint administrator of LBIE and partner at PwC, said: 'Today's distribution marks the end of a very long campaign that started within weeks of the administration when our original claim on behalf of our clients was filed against Lehman Brothers Inc. It has been a tough journey with many obstacles along the way, but ultimately one where our clients have benefited from a rewarding outcome.'

Owen Littman, general counsel at Cowen Group, Inc. and member of the LBIE creditors committee, described the latest distribution to the Omnibus Trust as 'a landmark event.'

'Through the tremendous collaborative effort of the administrators, creditors' committee and trust creditors to achieve a novel solution, creditors are receiving significant value for their LBIE omnibus trust asset claims that were severely discounted following the collapse of Lehman Brothers,' Littman said.