H OUSING N EWS R EPORT
February 2016
LEGAL BRIEFS
GoldmanReaches $5BillionSettlement More than seven years after the housing crisis, Goldman Sachs reached a $5 billion civil settlement with federal prosecutors and regulators stemming from the marketing and selling of faulty mortgage securities to investors. Goldman announced the settlement with the Justice Department and a collection of other state and federal entities on Jan. 14, 2016, resolving the largest settlement in the history of a Wall Street firm. Goldman’s settlement is far smaller than the sums paid by other firms for selling flawed mortgage securities. Goldman is among the last firms to reach a civil settlement with a task force of federal prosecutors, state attorneys general and regulators empowered to investigate Wall Street’s role in cobbling together securities from all the mortgages that borrowers found themselves unable to afford. Government officials previously won multibillion-dollar settlements from JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup. In 2013, JPMorgan Chase paid about $13 billion in a
similar settlement with federal and state agencies, and Bank of America paid about $16.6 billion in 2014. In all, the banks have paid more than $40 billion in settlements to resolve claims investigated by the task force.
SOURCE: Goldman Sachs
THE LATEST INDUSTRY NEWS AND TRENDS
www.RealtyTrac.com/Content
New Home Sales, NAR Existing Home Sales & Foreclosure Filings
10,000,000
400,000
AnnualizedCommerceDept. New HomeSales
AnnualizedNARExistingHomeSales
RealtyTracPropertieswithForeclosureFilings
9,000,000
350,000
8,000,000
300,000
7,000,000
250,000
6,000,000
5,000,000
200,000
4,000,000
150,000
3,000,000
100,000
2,000,000
50,000
1,000,000
0
0
SOURCES: RealtyTrac, National Association of Realtors, U.S. Commerce Department
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