NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Barclays Plc agreed to pay $298 million to settle claims it violated trade laws by facilitating transactions involving banks from countries under US sanctions.

Under a deferred-prosecution agreement filed yesterday in federal court in Washington, the London-based bank agreed to pay $149 million to the US and another $149 million to New York state.

Barclays was accused of violating US financial sanctions against Cuba, Iran, Libya, Sudan and Burma from about March 1995 through September 2006. Barclays followed the directions of banks in those countries to omit their names in payment messages sent to the New York branch and to other financial institutions, according to court papers.

In addition, Barclays amended payment messages to remove information identifying links to the sanctioned companies, prosecutors said.