Sumitomo agreed on Monday to pay the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) a record $150 million to settle charges of illegal copper trading.

The settlement stems from Sumitomo's disclosure in June 1996 that its top trader Yasuo Hamanaka conducted unauthorised copper trades over a 10-year period that eventually racked up $2.6 billion in trade losses.

"They've given us no objective facts over what happened. Itis also unclear how the class action suits in the US will develop," said Tomoyasu Kato, an analyst at Nomura Securities.

"Until these things become clear, the copper scandal is notfinished for us or for investors," he said.

In Britain, the financial Services Authority said Sumitomo would pay five million pounds to reimburse the regulator for the cost of investigating Hamanaka's trades.

WhileSumitomo said the agreements brought all pending regulatory investigations against the company to a close, it did not reveal any facts to show how the scandal occurred.

It also neither denied nor admitted to allegations by the CFTC that Hamanaka manipulated copper prices.

At a news conference late on Monday, Sumitomo presidentKenji Miyahara repeated that company management was not involved with Hamanaka's illegal trades.

He also said Sumitomo had not decided when it would publishthe results of an internal investigation, on which it has spent 1.3 billion yen ($9.7 million) in the past two years.

Sakuo Namba, general manager of Sumitomo's legal department,said that it would not be before the end of the CFTC's overall investigation, the settlement of class action suits in the United States, and the end of Sumitomo's pursuit of other parties involved in the case.

He did not elaborate on who those parties were.Of the $150 million Sumitomo agreed to pay to the CFTC, $25million will be set aside to settlefour pending class action suits in New York and California.

Namba said it was not known if that money would be enough tosettle the cases."The settlements mean Sumitomo just could not bear beinginvestigated any further," said Kazuyoshi Yuoka, a Sumitomo shareholder who has launched legal action against the company's management in Japan because of the scandal.

"It was probably worth paying that huge amount of money,because Sumitomo is claiming Hamanaka acted alone and that the company is also a victim," he added.On Tuesday, Moody's Investors Service said it had affirmedits A2 senior debt rating and P-1 Short-term debt ratings for Sumitomo Corp but that the rating outlook remained negative.

"The continued negative rating outlook reflects the factthat the company is still liable for contingent claims from the pending resolution of a class action suit by private parties in the U.S.," The statement said.

One of Hamanaka's three lawyers Toru Yoshiki said that hewould brief Hamanaka on the settlements onWednesday when he visits him in prison.

In March, the former star trader was sentenced to eightyears in prison for his role in the unauthorised trading.Asked about Sumitomo's responsibilities, Yoshiki said: "He(Hamanaka) has never said the company knew about them (the unauthorised trades)."

"There were, however, many indications. The company closedits eyes because of profits (Hamanaka appeared to be making), or it was too scared to see. Maybe both," he said.