For Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), next Monday loomed as a huge deadline. That was the day by which it was required to respond in court to the SEC's charges of fraud related to a single issue of an Abacus CDO. But the two sides have apparently come to a settlement.

Facts are sketchy as of now, but CNBC reports that the settlement is in the $550m range. That may seem a bit light to some, but we'll have to see what the specifics are. There had been talk that the firm had raised the issue of a more encompassing settlement that would include not only the CDO charges in question, but other investigations as well. The bank obviously wants to put all this behind in a way that doesn't create a tsunami of other litigation. Potential litigants may well be waiting for court documents and testimony to be generated. You would have to think that we've only seen the mere tip of the civil suit iceberg. 

If a larger encompassing deal is struck, it just might be the harbinger of a global settlement that would address similar sales and underwriting practices at other firms. We've been predicting something like this, but the true wild cards are the criminal prosecutors. It's hard to know what is going through their minds. You get the feeling that criminal charges are not likely. But you never know. Someone somewhere may have an ace up his or her sleeve. 

For more:

- here's the SEC press release
- here's a Reuters article