Goldman Sachs paying $3.15B to resolve US claims over mortgage securities

Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $3.15 billion to resolve claims that it misled U.S. mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac about risky mortgage securities it sold them before the housing market collapsed in 2007.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie and Freddie, announced the settlement Friday with the Wall Street powerhouse.

New York-based Goldman Sachs sold the securities to the companies between 2005 and 2007.

"We are pleased to have resolved these matters," said Goldman Sachs Group Inc. general counsel executive Gregory Palm in a statement.

The settlement is the latest federal government settlement over actions related to the financial crisis that struck in 2008. The crisis, triggered by vast sales of risky mortgage securities, plunged the economy into the deepest recession since the 1930s.