Northern Trust Corp. will pay more than $4.2 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a group that includes two Pontiac, Mich., pension systems over investment losses that occurred during the financial crisis.

The Chicago-based financial services firm violated its fiduciary and contractual duties when it “invested its clients’ assets in risky, long-term investments … that plummeted in value,” the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, had alleged.

The settlement, approved by Judge Jorge Alonso on Wednesday, will be paid to a group of institutional investors, including a Pontiac, Mich., police and fire retirement system that was among the plaintiffs.

Avi Josefson, partner of law firm Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann, which was co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said in a court filing last month that the settlement, which received preliminary approval in September, represented “a very favorable result” for the plaintiffs given the “significant risks involved in” not settling, including that they could recover less or nothing.

“Defendants have mounted a vigorous defense to settling plaintiffs’ claims at every stage of this litigation,” his filing said. Northern Trust claimed that the financial crisis of 2008 was unforeseeable and that the crisis, not its allegedly questionable investment decisions, was largely responsible for any losses the plaintiffs suffered.

A spokesman for Northern Trust said the firm was pleased to have resolved the litigation.

Other pensions that had sued Northern Trust and settled earlier included the Public School Teachers’ Pension and Retirement Fund of Chicago.

In 2015, the Tribune reported that Northern Trust would pay $60 million to settle two class-action lawsuits filed in 2009 by retirement plans unhappy with how Northern Trust ran its securities lending program.

Plaintiffs in those lawsuits included ExxonMobil Savings Plan, the Firefighters’ Retirement System of Louisiana and the Chicago teachers’ pension fund.

They said Northern Trust “imprudently invested” collateral received from its securities lending activities.

The class-action case that included Exxon was settled for $36 million, while the lawsuit brought by parties including the Chicago fund was settled for $24 million, documents showed.

The group that included Exxon had losses exceeding $130 million.