Business
JPMorgan, Justice Dept. Reach $13B Settlement
[USA Today]
The JPMorgan Chase & Co. logo is displayed at their headquarters in New York, in this Monday, Oct. 21, 2013, file photo. A person close to the talks says the Justice Department and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have reached agreement on all issues in a $13 billion settlement of a civil inquiry into the company’s sales of low-quality mortgage-backed securities that collapsed in value in the financial crisis. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
Banking giant JPMorgan Chase Tuesday finalized a record $13 billion settlement of multiple investigations over toxic mortgage investments such as those that helped spark the 2008 financial crisis.
The agreement announced by the U.S. Department of Justice and state officials in New York includes a statement of facts in which the nation’s largest bank admitted that it knew that residential mortgage-backed securities that it marketed did not comply with underwriting guidelines and weren’t fit for sale.
The settlement covers civil mortgage-related claims but does not absolve the bank or its officials from potential criminal charges, though JPMorgan said it broke no laws.
The penalties total more than half the $21.3 billion the bank reported in 2012 profit — and mark the largest government settlement ever paid by a single U.S. firm. The agreement also ends civil, mortgage-related probes that dealt a financial black eye to the leading bank survivor of the financial crisis, and to its CEO, Jamie Dimon.
