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Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch has agreed to settle a $39 million class action lawsuit for allegedly paying brokerage customers near-zero interest rates on idle cash in retirement accounts instead of market rate.

According to U.S. News, the attorneys for the financial investment giant offered to settle the lawsuit in Manhattan federal court.

The settlement required U.S District Judge Valeries Caproni to sign-off to avoid a trial which was set for this month.

The lawsuit covers Merrill Edge account holders between Dec. 15, 2016, and Mar. 15, 2020.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs claimed Merrill Lynch breached client agreements by automatically sweeping uninvested cash into deposit accounts paying only 0.05%–0.14% annually, far below the ~2% rates offered by other brokerages.

The complaint alleged this practice failed to meet the “reasonable rate” standard in client agreements U.S. News.

Merrill Lynch denied wrongdoing but agreed to settle U.S.