Today JPMorgan Chase bank was ordered to refund $309 million to customers, and pay an $80 million fine, due to unfair credit card billing practices.
They were also ordered to pay $920 million in fines over the “London Whale” scandal.
Oh yeah, and in July they settled for $410 million over accusations they’d been manipulating electricity markets in California and the Midwest.
And let’s not forget the $6 billion the Federal Housing Finance Agency is suing for due to bad mortgage security practices.
The good news is at least some of these greedy and unscrupulous activities are being brought to light, and the bank is being forced to cough up some dough. The bad news is these fines are only a tiny fraction of the bank’s overall profit… small enough that they’re probably just considered the “cost of doing business”. It reminds me of chemical companies who intentionally broke EPA laws by dumping toxins into rivers because the fines were less than the cost of proper disposal. Banks operate on the same principle: they cheat and rob, and then pay some pesky fine, because the profits from their shenanigans far outweigh whatever hand-slap they receive.
Sigh.