The historic breach that saw hackers steal the personal data of as many as 110 million Americans from its point-of-sale systems two years ago continues to haunt Target Corp., which has agreed to a $67 million settlement in order to put the ordeal in the past. The move takes a key plaintiff out of the picture after a long and tedious legal journey.

As the world’s largest payment processing company, Visa Inc.’s financial network took the brunt of the estimated 40 million cards that were compromised in the attack.  Accordingly, its name was one of the first to appear in lawsuits that were brought against Target after word of the breach became public last year, making the settlement all the more important for the retailer.

The agreement was signed after the requisite majority of the affected financial institutions in Visa’s network approved the proposed sum sometime last quarter, when is when the retailer took the charge on its earnings. The total impact of the breach on its bottom line now stands at $162 million, a figure that includes various internal security expenses as well as $10 million paid out directly to consumers as part of an earlier lawsuit.

But the saga is not over yet, with one major obstacle still standing in the way. Target had tried to reach a settlement with MasterCard Inc. months before inking the agreement with its rival but the $19 million proposal fell through after its card issued voted against the deal. Their lawyers are saying more is needed to cover their costs from the breach and have stuck by their position so far.

The retail gain will need to earn the approval of at least 90 percent of MasterCard account issuers in order to settle the lawsuit, which means that its expenses will probably reach much higher than $180 million by the time the ordeal is finally sorted out. But in the grand scheme of things, that’s not all that much to pay for the loss of over 40 million credit card numbers, which worth more than that on the black market even when not counting all the other data from the 110 million victims of the breach.

Photo via succo