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Two of the world’s largest banks have been fined over their malpractices. Deutsche Bank agreed to a US$7.2bn settlement over its mortgage-back securities investigation. Credit Suisse Group AG will pay US$5.28bn for a similar incident. More and more of these stories have been popping up in recent months. It is evident the banking sector is prone to more fines shortly.
Settlement cases in the financial sector are not out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, it appears banks have so much malpractice to answer for as of late, things are getting out of hand. Both Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse received fines over their US mortgage practices, which resulted in financial losses for homeowners and communities.
More Fines For Misbehaving Financial Institutions
But they are not the only ones in the crosshairs of regulators right now. Barclays is being used for fraud over their sale of mortgage bonds. Such a lawsuit is very uncommon for banks, as they usually tend to settle with the government over these practices. But in his case, trouble may be brewing for Barclays Plc.
To put his news into perspective, one must know the reason behind these fines. A lot of subprime mortgage bonds were sold by Wall Street firms, eventually leading to the 2008 financial crisis. Over the course of several years, various US financial institutions have been fined for their involvement. Over US$46bn in fines has been levied from these banks so far, not including these two latest amounts.
Topping off the trouble for banks all over the world is their falling shares price. Deutsche Bank’s shares lost 21% throughout 2016, whereas Credit Suisse saw a 29% retrace. This latest news will not provide confidence to their investors, although it remains to be seen how it will affect things.
But these mortgage settlements are only one small battle in the war against major bank malpractices. Deutsche Bank has been field several times this year, and other investigations are still ongoing. Wells Fargo received its third major fine in less than six months earlier his week. European banks are still under investigation for their involvement in mortgage-backed securities as well.
During all of these ongoing investigations, the Bitcoin price has been soaring. It is possible these vents are related, although the BTC price could be fueled by a lot of different factors. Financial institutions still have a lot of things to answer for, and future fines seem very likely at this point.
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