S&P settles mortgage claims for $1.37 billion

Rating agency Standard & Poor (S&P) is to pay $1.37 billion to settle a case over claims that it inflated its assessment of mortgage investments which contributed to the 2008 financial meltdown. The case was brought by the Justice Department, 19 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia and is one of the final Wall Street economic crisis cases.  S&P, a division of McGraw Hill, did not admit wrongdoing. The New York Times attributed the settlement partly to a change at the top of  McGraw Hill’s legal department. New general counsel Lucy Fato, formerly a partner at the law firm Davis Polk, has headed up the negotiations with the Justice Department and state attorneys general.  Both sides, the agreement said, settled 'to avoid the delay, uncertainty, inconvenience, and expense of further litigation.'