kentucky, stephanie yanukura, kentucky attorney general jack conway, maryland attorney general doug gansler, acting inspector general the federal housing finance aid michael stevens, and associate regional director enforcement william hicks of the united states securities and exchange commission. we are here today to announce a historic step forward in our ongoing effort to protect the american people from financial fraud and to hold accountable those whose actions threaten the integrity of our financial markets and undermined the stability of our economy. the department of justice has reached an agreement with bank of america totaling over $16.6 billion in penalties in consumer relief. this constitutes the largest civil settlement with the single entity in history, addressing conduct uncovered in more than a dozen cases and investigations. and it addresses allegations that bank of america, merrill lynch, and countrywide each engaged in pervasive schemes to defraud financial institutions and other investors with residential mortgage-backed securities or rmbs. as a part of the settlement, ba

the fdic,, fha, sec, trusted attorneys general beau biden of delaware, jack conway of kentucky, doug gansler of maryland, to california, and lisa madigan of illinois and eric schneiderman of new york was also one of the co-chairs of the working group. one final note, there are so many people who deserve recognition for the hard work that they did to make today's announcement a reality. but allow me to name just a special few. the assistant u.s. attorney who was the driving force behind the maryland investigation in the district of new jersey. the director of the group, jeff graber. and counsel stacy grigsby. and my deputy chief of staff cindy chang. thanks to all of them for their dedication and repeated all-nighters of the last several weeks. it has made a real difference. now i will turn it back to the attorney general. >> before we go to any questions, let me add a few words about the situation in ferguson. yesterday, i visited ferguson in order to be briefed on the ongoing federal civil rights investigation into the august 9 shooting death of michael brown. the investigation i launched m