Swiss banks make second payment on Holocaust settlement

(AP) -- Switzerland's two biggest banks on Tuesday paid a second instalment of last year's $1.25 billion settlement with Holocaust survivors and their heirs, a bank official said.

(AP) — Switzerland’s two biggest banks on Tuesday paid a second instalment of last year’s $1.25 billion settlement with Holocaust survivors and their heirs, a bank official said.

$333 million was paid into an escrow account in the United States, where it will be held and earn normal interest pending a final decision on how the money is distributed, said Credit Suisse spokesman Ulrich Pfister.

The instalment brings to $583 million the total paid into the account so far.

In August last year, Credit Suisse and UBS AG agreed to pay Holocaust survivors $1.25 billion in four instalments to compensate for wartime losses.

The first instalment of $250 million was paid a year ago.

Two further instalments of $333 million and $334 million are scheduled under the agreement, for November 2000 and a year later.

A decision on distributing the money must be authorized by a U.S. judge before anything can be paid out to recipients.

Judge Edward Korman in New York is to conduct a hearing November 29 on the settlement. That will be followed by a hearing in Israel December 15. The first payments to claimants are expected to take place in the middle of next year at the earliest.