Morgan Stanley on Monday agreed to pay $54 million to settle claims of sex discrimination that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission brought against the investment broker on behalf of more than 300 female employees.

The lawsuit, filed Sept. 10, 2001, charged New York-based Morgan Stanley with a pattern of unfair treatment of women in its institutional equity division, alleging that female workers were denied the same pay and promotion opportunities as those afforded to their male colleagues.

Settled in Manhattan federal court, this was the first-ever gender discrimination suit filed against a Wall Street firm by the EEOC, and it has become the commission’s second-largest settlement in any sex-bias case, an agency spokesman said.

The securities firm, in announcing the settlement, admitted to no wrongdoing and contended it has at all times equitably treated its female employees. Morgan Stanley did not return calls seeking comment on how it would fund the settlement.