New Delhi, April 3 :    New Delhi, April 3:  National Housing Bank (NHB) has decided to work out an out-of-court settlement with ANZ Grindlays to settle the multi-crore dispute relating to the 1992 securities scam. The board of NHB today cleared the move and the bank will soon initiate talks with ANZ. NHB chairman P.P. Vohra said, 'The board has formed a directors' committee which will negotiate with ANZ for a reasonable settlement.' Paul Edwards, ANZ Grindlays group's spokesperson, said from Melbourne: 'It is a positive development...now it is a matter of discussion between the two parties.' Australian banking major Grindlays had offered the settlement deal which NHB now seems willing to negotiate. Sources said Grindlays had offered to pay half of the Rs 1,529.6 crore it had kept in banks in India for this settlement as compensation but NHB has instead demanded 60 per cent of ANZ's funds here or roughly a little over Rs 900 crore, which is also roughly the amount they have earmarked as bad debt in their books of account as a fallout of this case. Grindlays is likely to accept the NHB demand, top banking sources said as it still means it can take back some Rs 600 crore home. The case is scheduled to come up for final hearing in Supreme Court next week. ANZ had alleged that NHB had, on verbal orders, routed Rs 506.5 crore through it to scam tainted stock broker Harshad Mehta that was never paid back by the 'Big Bull' and hence could not be paid back to NHB. The Australian bank also pointed out that NHB followed similar routes through other banks, including the State Bank of India and three other public sector banks besides several foreign banks to channel funds to Mehta who used them to play the securities market. These charges were refuted by NHB. According to the housing bank, it had routed the money to ANZ directly so that the Australian bank could use it in the stock market directly and demanded the money be returned to it. NHB itself was debarred from playing the securities market. ANZ had sold off its local operations to Standard Chartered as a fallout of the huge amount which was being claimed from it. It deposited the money from the selloff deal in banks in the country as a contingency measure to pay up if asked by the courts. But in 1997 an arbitration panel ruling came in ANZ's favour forcing NHB to make a provision of Rs 912 crore in its books. This included the principle amount of Rs 506.53 crore plus an interest rate of 18 per cent per annum. Grindlays made the offer of an out-of-court settlement to NHB about a month back but had got no response since then. But with the date of the Supreme Court hearing drawing closer, the housing bank decided to take it up seriously. ANZ officials said they had offered about Rs 765 crore taking into account lower rates of interest now being charged in India on term deposits.