Do regulatory fines fit the crimes?

Major banks charged with violations often face multimillion-dollar fines.

But how are those fines calculated? That’s the question being posed by New York Times Dealbook, which finds it’s unclear whether many of today’s large-scale penalty amounts actually reflect the ill-gotten gains collected by fraudsters or the harm they’ve caused.

To learn more, check out the outlet’s dissection of JP Morgan’s recent $2 billion civil penalty payment to the U.S. Justice Department. That penalty was part of the bank’s $13 billion settlement over sales of mortgage securities.

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