The recent decision by Goldman chief Lloyd C. Blankfein, to pay $550 million towards the settlement of federal claims that the company had misled investors in a complex mortgage investment, has received a reverberating approval from the financial markets.

The Thursday-evening official announcement, pertaining to the settlement deal, resulted in an almost 4.3 percent jump in Goldman’s share prices. 

The settlement - a reconciliation move that most of the Wall Street watchers are terming as a victory for Blankfein – will finally allow Goldman to put behind one of the bank’s most discomforting episodes ever.

Though the $550-million deal happens to be one of the largest settlements in financial history, the amount is not only half the size that that many analysts had initially estimated, but is also just 15 days of profits for Goldman, based on the bank’s last-year earnings!

Commenting on the settlement, David Smick, a Washington-based financial adviser, said: “It looks like a big win for Goldman. It seems like a paltry sum.”

In fact, just a few weeks back, the dragging negotiations between Goldman and the federal authorities and the increasing bad publicity that the company was garnering, had led to speculations that Blankfein – the chairman and the CEO of the bank - might lose his hold on Goldman; and that the legal muddle will at least cost him Goldman’s chairmanship.