Morgan Stanley paying $275M to settle SEC charges over sales of risky mortgage bonds

Morgan Stanley has agreed to pay $275 million to settle U.S. civil charges that it misled investors about risky mortgage bonds it sold ahead of the 2008 financial crisis.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the settlement Thursday with the Wall Street bank. The SEC said Morgan Stanley failed to accurately disclose the delinquency status of home mortgages backing two securities deals that it financed and sold in 2007.

New York-based Morgan Stanley neither admitted nor denied the allegations.

The $275 million Morgan Stanley is paying will be returned to investors in the deals who were harmed, the SEC said.

When the housing bubble burst in 2007, millions of home borrowers defaulted on their loans and bundles of mortgages sold by big banks left investors with billions in losses.