Bank and banking regulation

Organised white-collar crime — moving dirty money for people and companies — has became a whole lot easier. Meanwhile, Suzanne James reports, banks remain untouchable.

Earlier this year, US and European banks — the ones that were too big to fail — settled US$18 billion worth of fines with regulators. These fines were for money laundering activities, breaching sanctions violations, and manipulating the Libor (London interbank offered rate). The Libor is used to set interest rates on about US$800 trillion of borrowings and derivative contracts.