Morgan Stanley has agreed to pay former top bankers Joseph Perella and Terry Meguid $12.8m (€10.2m) in severance bonuses to ensure they do not join the campaign to unseat the bank's chairman and chief executive Philip Purcell.

According to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US regulator, the two will each receive $6.4m if they do not pledge allegiance to the group of eight dissident ex-senior Morgan Stanley executives challenging the bank's current leadership.