Washington ? Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs agreed Tuesday to pay $40 million each to settle regulators’ allegations that they improperly doled out shares of hot new stocks to certain customers to get them to buy more at inflated prices once trading began.

The brokerages neither admitted to nor denied the allegations made in two civil lawsuits by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Wall Street firms also agreed to refrain from further violations. The settlements are subject to approval by federal courts in New York and Washington.

The violations of securities laws and brokerage industry rules allegedly occurred in 1999 and 2000, during the height of the tech-stock boom and the frenzy of initial public offerings of stock, known as IPOs.

The fines are the latest in a series of similar enforcement cases brought during the past few years by the SEC and the disciplinary arm of the National Association of Securities Dealers.