S&P to pay $1.38bn settlement to U.S. regulators

S&P to pay $1.38bn settlement to U.S. regulators

PanARMENIAN.Net - Ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) is to pay a $1.38bn settlement to U.S. regulators over allegations it knowingly inflated its ratings of risky mortgage bonds, BBC News reports.

The deal with the U.S. Justice Department also resolves 19 other lawsuits. It covers mortgage bond ratings between 2004 and 2007.

The bonds, which included sub-prime mortgages, were blamed for the collapse of the U.S. property market and subsequent global financial crisis.

The U.S. Justice Department filed civil fraud charges against S&P two years ago. It accused the credit rating firm of giving top recommendations - known as triple-A ratings - to mortgage bonds that it knew contained sub-prime mortgage debt and were therefore not as safe an investment as the rating suggested.

The U.S. government said that S&P's ratings encouraged financial institutions around the world to buy and sell what proved to be "toxic" financial products in their trillions. It also accused S&P of failing to warn investors that the housing market was collapsing in 2006 because doing so would have hurt its business.

At the time, S&P said the U.S. government's case was entirely without factual or legal merit.

S&P will pay $687.5mln to the Justice Department and a further $678.5mln to the 19 states that had brought lawsuits against it. S&P will also pay $125mln in a separate settlement with the California Public Employees' Retirement System.

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