Goldman Sachs to pay record $550m to settle civil fraud charges

Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs will pay a record $550m fine to settle the SEC's fraud probe into mortgage-backed securities.

Goldman faced civil charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Committee, which accused the bank of defrauding investors in a sub-prime financial product. "This settlement is a stark lesson to Wall Street firms that no product is too complex, and no investor too sophisticated, to avoid a heavy price if a firm violates the fundamental principles of honest treatment and fair dealing," the SEC's director of enforcement Robert Khuzami says. "Half a billion dollars is the largest penalty ever assessed against a financial services firm in the history of the SEC." RBS, one of the larges...