In a 2021 complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the SEC claimed that Morningstar’s former credit rating unit had broken securities laws by allowing analysts to tweak credit rating models for roughly $30 billion of mortgage securities, reducing investor returns.
Morningstar said in a quarterly report that it reached the settlement, which requires SEC internal approval and a judicial green-light, on April 12. It did not admit wrongdoing.