Goldman Sachs Group Inc. announced today that they have agreed to pay $5.06 billion to settle claims related to misleading investors between 2005 and 2007. Goldman Sachs’s actions led to much of the economic distress during the 2008 recession.
According to the Department of Justice, Goldman Sachs’s conduct in packaging, securitization, marketing, and sales of residential mortgage-backed securities between 2005 and 2007 caused investors to lose billions of dollars.
The settlement is made up of a $2.385 billion civil penalty and $1.8 billion in other relief. They will also be on the hook for $875 million to resolve claims from New York and Illinois attorney generals, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Federal Home Loan Banks of Chicago and Seattle.
This is the fifth recession-related settlement since 2012. The earlier cases involved J.P. Morgan Chase ($13 billion), Bank of America ($16.6 billion), Citibank ($7 billion), and Morgan Stanley ($3.2 billion).
“We are pleased to put these legacy matters behind us,” said a Goldman Sachs representative in a statement. “Since the financial crisis, we have taken significant steps to strengthen our culture, reinforce our commitment to our clients, and ensure our governance processes are robust.”
But will it be enough to restore faith in big banks? Fortune suggests that, while these settlements are an improvement on similar situations a few years ago, when Wall Street firms could say they “neither admit nor deny the charges,” no specific bankers are required to deal with the consequences of their actions.
Still, perhaps some action is better than no action at all. “This resolution holds Goldman Sachs accountable for its serious misconduct in falsely assuring investors that securities it sold were backed by sound mortgages,” noted Acting Associate Attorney General Stuart Delery.
As things currently stand, the DOJ can still bring charges against Goldman Sachs and other banks involved. In fact, the banks may even be expecting it: Goldman Sachs, for instance, has set aside increasing amounts for legal and litigation expenses—in 2015 alone, their fund reached $4.01 billion, more than double the totals for the previous two years combined.