Germany's Deutsche Bank on Friday has agreed to pay $7.2 billion  over an investigation of sale and pooling of toxic mortgage securities that played a significant role in the 2008 financial crisis.

The agreement offers some relief to the German lender, whose stock was hit hard in September after it acknowledged that the US Justice Department had been seeking nearly $14 billion of penalty, according to BBC. 

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The impending penalty had caused concerns that a failure of the bank could pose a risk to the global financial system.

Under the settlement, Deutsche will pay $3.1 billion for civil penalty and $4.1 billion in consumer relief, which will be delivered over a period of at least five years. This will help US homeowners in the form of loan modifications and other similar initiatives.

However, Deutsche cautioned that there is "no assurance" the two sides will agree on the final documents.

The bank is also expecting to record a pretax charge of about $1.17 billion in its fourth quarter because of the civil monetary penalty, according to its press release.

The bank will publish its 2016 preliminary results for the financial year on Feb. 2, 2017.

It also highlighted the Justice Department's recent efforts to hold European banks accountable for shoddy securities that contributed to the U.S. housing market collapse.

The announcement of the tentative deal with Deutsche Bank came on the same day that the Justice Department sued Barclays, the British bank, over similar accusations. In that case, negotiations broke down, leading the government to file a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. 

Settling the mortgage-securities case is a relief that would mean Deutsche Bank has shaken off one legal headache. 

TagsDeutsche Bank, Mortgage Securities, U.S. Department of Justice, financial crisis, $7.2 Billion