NEW YORK A U.S. judge on Friday granted preliminary approval to Deutsche Bank AG's $75 million settlement with women who said Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused them, and that the German bank facilitated the late financier's sex trafficking.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan scheduled an Oct. 20 hearing to consider final approval.

Epstein was a Deutsche Bank client from 2013 to 2018. The accord covers women and girls who were sexually abused or trafficked by Epstein or his associates from Aug. 19, 2013, until his death six years later.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)