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THE FALL OF ENRON Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce agreed to pay $2.4 billion in the Enron shareholders securities fraud class- action lawsuit, the biggest settlement in the case so far.

The agreement announced Tuesday with lead plaintiff University of California boosted settlements in the case so far to more than $7 billion.

That exceeds any securities case and surpasses the more than $6 billion in the WorldCom case, William Lerach, lead counsel for the university, said.

"This settlement demonstrates that the university's strategy of aggressively pursuing the defendants is working," Lerach said.

Some 50,000 investors could eventually split the settlement pot in the case. At this point, though, it's too early to say what payouts are expected to be or when they might reach investors.

Although CIBC agreed to settle claims it was part of a scheme to defraud investors, the Toronto-based bank did not admit any wrongdoing.

CIBC said it agreed to the deal to eliminate uncertainties and the burden and expense of further protracted litigation.

"A key priority for us is to resolve this case and substantially reduce our litigation risk," said Gerry McCaughey, CIBC president and chief executive officer.

CIBC's board of directors OK'd the settlement, which still needs approval from the university's board of regents and the court.

U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon is overseeing the case, which was filed in 2001, the year Houston-based Enron collapsed.

The plaintiff's lawyers hope the CIBC deal puts more pressure on remaining defendants to settle, because the cost of settling can increase with time.

Other settlements so far are $2.2 billion from JPMorgan Chase & Co., $2 billion from Citigroup, $222.5 million from Lehman Bros., $69 million from Bank of America and $168 million from Enron's outside directors.

James Holst, the university's general counsel, said the CIBC deal builds on previous settlements and sets the stage for additional progress in the case.

Broadly speaking, the defendants in the suit are alleged to have helped Enron defraud investors. Enron investors suffered more than $40 billion in market losses, the plaintiffs say.

Among the remaining defendants are Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse First Boston, Barclays Bank, Deutsche Bank, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Scotland, Goldman Sachs, former Enron officers and Arthur Andersen.

The plaintiffs continue to get ready for trial in the case, which is set for Oct. 16, 2006, Lerach noted.

"This was a big step down the road," he said of the CIBC deal.

Securities lawyer Jacob Zamansky, who isn't involved in this class-action case but has been following it, said Tuesday he thinks the settlement with CIBC is substantial.

But the defendants in general, he said, should be putting up more money.

"This settlement is just pennies on the dollar for shareholders, employees and bondholders who lost a fortune," said Zamansky, who won a settlement in a case against Merrill Lynch over high-tech stock losses based on recommendations of analyst Henry Blodget.

In December 2003, CIBC agreed to pay $80 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit related to Enron.