Credit ratings giant S&P Global on Monday agreed to pay the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission $2.5 million to settle charges that it violated the regulator’s rules against conflicts of interest.

The SEC found that over five days in August 2017, S&P commercial employees, who are responsible for maintaining relationships with the companies that hire S&P to rate their debt, tried several times to influence colleagues who were determining the rating for a company’s jumbo residential mortgage-backed securities.