GLOBAL – ABP, the €292bn pension fund for Dutch civil servants, has agreed with Goldman Sachs to settle its claim on residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), purchased from the merchant bank between 2005 and 2007.
ABP initiated legal proceedings in January last year, filing a complaint against the Goldman Sachs entities involved in the securitisation and sale of the certificates, as well as a number of individual defendants, in the New York Supreme Court.
The scheme said it purchased certain RMBS based on false and misleading statements, and that the securities were far more risky – and backed by mortgage loans worth far less – than what had originally been represented.
Goldman Sachs continues to deny these claims.
According to ABP, the settlement concludes any and all RMBS-related legal proceedings between the pension fund and the asset manager.
It added that the relationship between the two had been "normalised".
To date, ABP has reached settlements with Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase and mortgage provider Countrywide in RMBS-related cases.
Similar lawsuits against Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and Ally Financial are pending.
Henk Brouwer, chairman at ABP, said: "We are pleased to see these cases being concluded satisfactorily one by one.
"We have full confidence all will be completed in due course, as evidence that all parties involved are looking to the future, leaving past grievances and practices behind them."
The pension fund declined to put a figure on the Goldman Sachs settlement, but a spokesman stressed that it had been "good by all standards".
