A clearer picture is emerging of how much money might be available to pay back victims of the Bernard Madoff fraud, but while the pot is big it is nowhere near enough to repair all the damage.

It includes nearly $1 billion held by Madoff's company and potentially more than $100 million in personal assets that include luxury homes, cars and boats.

Several banks, hedge fund managers and others who led clients to Madoff may wind up paying huge settlements to resolve negligence lawsuits. Banco Santander, Spain's largest bank and one of the biggest losers in the scheme, has already offered 1.3 billion euros to defrauded customers.

Additionally, some U.S. investors will be able to receive up to $500,000 from an industry fund for people whose money has vanished in a brokerage failure, the Securities Investor Protection Corp.

The reality for many victims, though, is that they will be in a long line of investors fighting to recoup a fraction of what they lost.