New York - Discover Financial Services Tuesday settled an 18-billion-dollar antitrust lawsuit at the last minute against its larger competitors Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc over charges the two companies had blocked banks from issuing its cards.

The deal, the terms of which were not announced, was sealed as jury selection was set to begin in Manhattan federal court.

Bloomberg financial news service quoted UBS AG analyst Adam Frisch as saying the case settled for about 2.8 billion dollars.

"This settlement was at the higher end of our expectation range but not at a level that represents a material surprise," the analyst wrote to clients, citing "industry sources."

Already in 2001, US District Judge Barbara Jones in Manhattan ordered Visa and MasterCard to stop forcing banks to choose between their cards and ones from Discover and American Express Co. The order came after the US Justice Department sued the credit card giants for antitrust violations.

American Express sued separately and settled for 4.05 billion dollars from the two companies over the past year.