According to MarketWatch, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) said U.S. inquiries into the way Wall Street packaged and sold mortgage bonds ahead of the financial crisis may bring about a "significant increase" in the firm's legal costs.
In its quarterly regulatory filing, Goldman said "ongoing investigations by members of the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group of the U.S. Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force" could results in a rise in its liabilities tied to mortgage-related matters.
Those potential costs, however, weren't factored into a range of "reasonably possible" losses Goldman faces related to various legal and regulatory disputes. Goldman this week raised the top end of that range to $4 billion above what it had already set aside in legal reserves, up from $3.5 billion at the end of June.
