A new investigation says U.S. regulators have been quietly settling civil claims with banks whose failures triggered massive federal payouts and helped spur the financial meltdown. The Los Angeles Times reports the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has settled with the banks for a fraction of what their losses actually cost while agreeing not to publicize the deals to protect the banks’ public image. The FDIC has lost $92.5 billion in the failures of 471 U.S. banks since 2007. But the agency has collected just $787 million in settlements — a tiny fraction of its losses. While the settlements accuse the banks of fraud, negligence, reckless loans to homeowners, falsified documents and other abuses, they have been concealed from the public under nondisclosure deals some say border on illegal.