LOS ANGELES – A federal judge in Los Angeles has approved a $601.5 million class action settlement between Countrywide Financial Corp. and its shareholders—the largest securities agreement to come out of the housing crisis.

The amount offered in the settlement, more than $600 million, is “among the largest settlements in the cases of this nature,” said U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer in Los Angeles at a hearing on Friday.