Virginia in $63M Securities Settlement With 11 Banks

Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring has announced a $63 million settlement involving 11 financial institutions charged with selling the state government and the Virginia Retirement System (VRS) residential mortgage-backed securities (MBS) that later turned toxic.

"This case breaks new ground for Virginia, recovering millions for Virginia taxpayers from banks that we alleged had misrepresented the products they sold to the Commonwealth," said Herring in a statement issued by his office. "[This] settlement, which represents significant relief to VRS, taxpayers and pensioners of the Commonwealth, is one of the largest of its kind in the nation."

Herring’s office stated that the financial institutions “have admitted no liability” in connection to the charges brought against them and that all outstanding legal claims were being dismissed in exchange for the penalties paid by each company. It was not explained why Herring opted to time his announcement of all 11 settlements in one sweep.

The settlements involve $19.5 million from the combined Countrywide Securities Corp and Merrill Lynch, $10 million from RBS Securities Inc., $9 million from Barclays Capital Inc., $6.9 million from Morgan Stanley, $5.6 million from Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., $4.75 million from Citigroup Global Markets Inc., $2.9 million from Goldman Sachs, $2.5 million from HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., $1.2 million from Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and $850,000 from UBS Securities LLC.