BNP Paribas, France’s biggest bank, is in trouble with the law in the US. It is apparently guilty of violating US financial sanctions against Iran and others. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) suggested the bank plead guilty and pay a $16 billion fine. The bank offered $1 billion. Negotiations continue. $10 billion is the rumoured outcome. Reuters had the story on 12th June:

The chief operating officer of BNP Paribas is to step down at the end of June and retire completely on Sept. 30, France’s biggest bank announced on Thursday as talks with U.S. authorities over a potential $10 billion fine gathered pace.

New York’s banking regulator had requested the departure of the long-serving [42 years] Georges Chodron de Courcel as part of a settlement for alleged violations of sanctions against Iran, Sudan and other countries, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on June 5.

U.S. authorities … are investigating whether BNP evaded U.S. sanctions between 2002 and 2009. Sources familiar with the matter say they are trying to establish whether the bank stripped out identifying information from wire transfers so they could pass through the U.S. financial system without raising red flags.

Does that sound like fraud to you? … It does to me … So why is Georges just being invited to “step down”? … Surely if he’s been responsible for that level of naughtiness in the bank, he should go to gaol … mere mortals like us would be there for causing very much less damage to our fellow man.

It’s way beyond time some big time banker went to gaol. Fines imposed, effectively on the shareholders of banks, don’t seem to be a deterrent. Maybe a few years on Rikers Island would make them think a bit more about what they do.

Next day it was Citi. They’ve been up to no good in selling mortgage bonds. The DOJ is not satisfied with Citi’s offer to pay $4 billion: they are apparently planning to take Citi to Court to get $10 billion.

These are gigantic fines. For context, the total profit of all 4 of Australia’s big banks combined in 2013 was about US$26 billion. Woolworths total annual revenue from all activities (supermarkets, pubs and liquor, hardware, BigW, property) is about US$60 billion.

Earlier in the month this appeared in the London Financial Times:

This adds up to about US$87.5 billion.

It does not include the two matters mentioned above, and many others that are no doubt still in progress.

Given that the Regulators are widely regarded as toothless and timid, yet they have imposed these fines, we can only wonder at the actual scale of the criminal activity in banking.

And how many senior, responsible executive bankers from these 21 financial institutions have gone to gaol for the crimes that have brought forth these fines?

None.