The Financial Conduct Authority has released a notice reminding investors who lost money in Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme that the deadline to claim compensation from a $4 billion federal recovery fund has been extended by two months.

The Financial Conduct Authority has released a notice reminding investors who lost money in Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme that the deadline to claim compensation from a $4 billion federal recovery fund has been extended by two months.

Richard Breeden, the special master overseeing the Madoff Victim Fund on behalf of the US Department of Justice, and US Attorney Preet Bharara in New York, on Friday extended the claims deadline from 28 February to 30 April.

Breeden said that many victims had only recently learned of the compensation fund and that the pace of claims had "accelerated dramatically" as a result of banks and custodians notifying potentially eligible clients.

The Madoff Victim Fund is open to customers that invested with Madoff indirectly through financial feeder funds, investment groups and other pooled investment vehicles. It runs alongside a separate US Congress bankruptcy program which has only allowed a minority of victims to claim compensation.

The victim claim fund has so far received more than 9,000 claims from individuals in 75 countries.

Madoff was arrested on 11 December 2008 and charged with securities fraud, investment advisor fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, false statements, perjury, false filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and theft from an employee benefit plan. After pleading guilty to all eleven counts he was sentenced to 150 years in prison.

"Madoff's appetite for cash was voracious, and thousands of investment products or funds were used to raise money. The cash of investors flowed into Madoff Securities through investment partnerships, funds of hedge funds, trusts, UCITS, insurance and annuity programs and many other types of financial products. In addition, investor money was often routed through multiple entities before reaching Madoff Securities," Breeden said in a statement released earlier this year.

Madoff’s $20 billion Ponzi scheme is considered to be the largest financial fraud in US history. The scheme ran for decades and inflicted immense financial harm and personal anguish on victims around the world, with a large majority of victims having gone five years without a significant recovery.

In January, JP Morgan Chase agreed to pay $1.7 billion to settle criminal allegations that it did not tell US authorities about suspicious activity from Madoff. The $1.7 billion is part of $2.6 billion the bank has agreed to pay in settlement of legal actions brought against it as a result a result of the fraud.

The charges consisted of two felony violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, in connection with the bank’s relationship with Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities.

Since 1986, JP Morgan and its predecessor institutions served as the primary bank through which Madoff ran his Ponzi scheme.

JP Morgan said in a statement that it filed a Suspicious Activity Report with UK authorities in late October 2008, but did not take a similar step in the US. The bank reportedly knew about Madoff's fraud as early as 1997.