Bad behavior can get pricey.
Bank fines hit a record $10.7 billion this past year. The total was capped when UBS recently agreed to pay $1.2 billion to US authorities for manipulating Libor.
Among the offenders: Deutsche Bank paid $335 million for failing to disclose risks when selling mortgages. HSBC, ING and Standard Chartered paid $3.2 billion for money laundering violations in dealing with Cuba and Iran. Bank of New York Mellon paid $210 million for sending customers to Bernie Madoff. And Wells Fargo paid $175 million for giving subprime mortgages to minority borrowers who qualified for less-expensive loans.
But it’s worse than that. The record $10.7 billion only includes fines paid to US authorities, not what was paid to European regulators. And it doesn’t include fines that haven’t been decided yet – like the one for JP Morgan’s $5.8 billion “London Whale” trading loss.