Is There No Limit To Banks' Misdeeds?

[Superman]

Corporations are not required to be ethical. Being ethical costs money. Corporations focus on making money.

Aside from ethics, there is lawfulness versus unlawfulness. Managers don't want to go to jail but.....that almost never happens anyway. Aside from the personal (incarceration) risk, lawfulness is a simple business decision. And usually, the risks (fines) are less than the rewards. Far less.

[RWebb]

"Enforcement of the law is what really counts."

[jyl]

Enforcement, not whack-a-mole.

Currently, when another illegal, unethical, fraudulent bank scheme is uncovered, the politicians rush to blame the regulators. Damned SEC, FDIC, CFTC! Damned lazy incompetent agency workers! They should have detected and stopped the bank's scheme. Quick, haul the agency heads up to the Hill, give them a public lashing for not stopping the crooks, and then cut their budget for stopping future crooks.

Of course, we'll invite the CEO of the bank to appear before us too. He will be earnest and contrite, we will be understanding and sorrowful. Its hard to be a master; underlings can be so disappointing. If he's Jamie Dimon, we'll even fawn over him.

After all, that understaffed agency cop in the Men's Wearhouse suit isn't writing $100K checks, while that bank CEO is.

So this is what enforcement is. One of the world's biggest industries, certainly the most complex, offering countless ways to break the law and make hundreds of millions with almost no chance of serving time, and fairly low odds of being caught at all. Every now and then, a bank gets caught. Pay a manageable sum of money. Business as usual.

One part of my industry, investment management, is in the cross hairs of enforcement now. Scores of hedge fund managers are being personally criminally prosecuted and being sent to jail for substantial sentences. Small fry and big fish alike. This is effective. It has changed behavior. That is what should be going on at the big banks.