In descending order of importance, I presume in terms of the amount of money involved. Finance Watch don't seem to tell us anything about how the list was constructed and I don't pretend to understand what most of it is about, but it looks a lot less healthy than brewing better beer or building better houses.
Robert Jenkins’ partial list of banking misdeeds to date
1: Mis-selling of payment protection insurance
2: Mis-selling interest rate swaps
3: Mis-selling credit card theft insurance
4: Mis-selling of mortgage-backed securities
5: Mis-selling of municipal bond investment strategies
6: Mis-selling of structured deposit investments
7: Mis-selling of foreign exchange products
8: Fraud related to the packaging and selling of mortgage-backed securities that institutions knew to be “toxic waste”
9: Misleading statements to investors involving capital-raising rights issue
10: Misleading investors in the sale of collateralised debt obligations
11: Abusive small business lending practices
12: Predatory mortgage practices
13: Abusive or in inappropriate foreclosure practices
14: Abusive imposition of unwarranted fees and charges
15: Conducting false appraisals and charging customers for them
16: Aiding and abetting tax evasion
17: Aiding and abetting money laundering for violent drug cartels
18: Violations of rogue-regime sanctions
19: Manipulation of Libor
20: Manipulation of Euribor
21: Manipulation of SF Libor
22: Manipulation of Yen Libor
23: Manipulation of FX markets
24: Manipulation of gold fixing (London)
25: Manipulation of commodity markets via metals warehousing practices
26: Manipulation of electricity markets (California)
27: Manipulation of the swaps market benchmark index (Isdafix)
28: Collusion relating to credit default swap market dealing in violation of US anti-trust laws (“settlement” reached with authorities to resolve allegations)
29: Filing false statements with the SEC (London Whale)
30: Keeping false books and records (London Whale)
31: Reporting failures relating to Madoff
32: Withholding of critical information from Italian regulators
33: Bribing civil service employees in Japan
34: Mis-reporting related to Barclays emergency capital raising
35: Stealing confidential regulatory information by a banker
36: Collusion with Greek authorities to mislead EU policy makers on meeting Euro criteria
37: Financial engineering with the aim of moving Italian debt off-balance sheet
38: Manipulation of risk models with the aim of minimizing reported Risk Weighted Assets / capital requirements
39: Electronic FX trading related market manipulation
40: Process and control failures with respect to dealings with the ultra-wealthy/ “politically exposed persons”
41: Failure to prevent bribery of African officials
42: Peddling complex tax avoidance strategies to corporate clients
43: Improperly providing information about a Japanese company to its clients
44: Abuses relating to dark pool trading platforms
45: Failure to disclose conflict of interests to wealth management clients
46: Misleading investors with wrong / incomplete information
47: Conspiracy to commit multi-million dollar securities fraud
48: Overcharging customers for FX transactions
49: Failure to meet the terms of the 2013 Mortgage foreclosure abuses settlement
50: Repeated violation of federal laws connected with sourcing securities for client shorting
51: Manipulation of Korean stock market
52: Unfairly jumping the creditor queue to secure (confiscate?) collateral relating to Lehman
53: Publishing research and trading in the shares of a company it was advising
54: Other mortgage related abuses including: failing to accurately track payments by borrowers; charging unauthorised fees; and providing false and misleading information in response to complaints by customers
55: Use of minority owned non-consolidated subsidiaries to arbitrage capital requirements
56: Investment bank analysts altering stock research recommendations to curry favour with companies they are researching
57: Use of illegal offshore schemes to avoid paying income tax on bonuses
58: Ex Federal Reserve employee working at Goldman conspired with former Central Bank colleague to leak confidential information
59: Overcharging custody clients through the use of undisclosed or secret mark-ups on foreign exchange transactions in contradiction of its promise to clients of "best execution rates"
60: Mis-selling of loans to small business customers under the UK's Enterprise Finance scheme
61: Offers to procure prostitutes to curry favour with SWF clients
62: Manufactured 7.2 billion euros of deposits by sham transactions to inflate reported deposit base during the crisis
63: Predatory practices connected with the issuance of banking debit cards
64: Supervisory failures connected with Chicago Mercantile related exchange and clearing fee
65: Falsifying accounts (manipulating mark-to- market pricing of derivatives positions) to reduce reported unrealised losses
66: Dismissal of whistle-blower who complained about the above
67: Creation of fake client accounts and making unauthorised transfers to achieve bonus driven sales targets - involving some 2 million clients and no less than 5000 employee offenders over some 5 years
68: Misleading investors via misclassification of private client asset accounts with a view to inflate reported Net New Assets for the bank
69: Executives awarding themselves generous pay packages at a time when their institution was requesting state aid
70: Knowingly avoiding a written record of defects in MBS pools by reducing applicable quality controls
71: Breach of duty to be fair and open with the regulator (hiding information relating to US investigations and penalties with respect to sanctions violations)
72: Conceiling from (lying to) thousands of customers the existence of dormant accounts (RBS / Sunday Times Almee Donnellan)
73: Divulging and Sharing confidential client information with friends and acquaintances on social media
74: Seeking government reimbursement from the Federally-backed US Small Business Administration on bad loans that it knew were based on fraudulent or potentially fraudulent information. In other words – seeking to defraud the government for reimbursement of defrauding clients
75: Collusion - sharing loan pricing info with a competitor in violation of Competition Act
76: “Re-ordering transactions” so as to maximize overdraft fees
77: Defrauding institutional investment clients by charging hidden mark-ups plus failure to disclose material information about the operation of the bank’s electronic platform for US Treasury trading
78: Supressing and eliminating competition by fixing prices for eastern European, Middle Eastern, and African currency currencies
79: Placing bogus futures orders to move mislead the markets and clients and move markets – criminal market abuse called “spoofing.”
80: Manipulation of precious metals markets (gold/silver/platinum/palladium - Switzerland)
81: Manipulation / collusion of the US Treasury Market auction/client sales
82: Manipulation of energy markets
83: Short changing clients a second time in not paying settlements in full
84: Violations connected with emergency fund raisings
85: Falsifying customer data and records
86: Misleading shareholders ahead of RBS rights issue
87: Misleading shareholder information with respect to Lloyds takeover of HBOs
88: Conspiracy to force small businesses into bankruptcy to the benefit of the lender
89: Insertion of illegal rate floors in Spanish mortgage lending
90: Faking customer files to justify predatory foreclosure practices
91: Misleading profit and capital statements based on questionable accounting practices
92: Bribing (“Improper payments”) officials in connection with license applications in Saudi Arabia
93: Hiring sons and daughters of senior officials in return for favours
94: Fabricating complaint letters after the fact to justify dismissal of a whistle-blower who raised alarms over possible mis-selling of mutual funds.
95: “Mis-informing” (lying) to 4500 people over existence of dormant accounts
96: Use of “mirror trades” ($10 billions worth) to circumvent Russian related sanctions
97: Overcharging customers who are past due on their credit cards
98: Market rigging of Gilt trading
99: Hiding failed Loans in the commercial real estate portfolio in 2009 and 2010 whilst issuing new stock to repay government bail-out money
100: Non transparent and excess charges for FX transfers by major UK banks to small businesses in the UK
101: Manipulating shareholdings around dividend payment dates to trigger dishonestly acquired tax reimbursements
102: Manipulation of the Australian “bank bill swap rates”
103: Manipulation of the government sponsored bond market (supranational, sub-sovereign and government agency debt or “SSA market”)
104: Use of secret / undisclosed payments of circa $500mio connected with emergency capital funding
105: Knowingly acquiring “dirty debt” (a loan used as part of a multi-million pound embezzlement scheme) and using it to demand compensation from an African government
106: Conspiracy with borrower to falsify work estimates totalling $400 million of fraudulent accounts receivable
107: Facilitating fraudulent activity by customers via use of import advance payments
108: “Spoofing” in trading of US government bonds
109: Laundering the proceeds of Petrobras related corruption
110: Mis-selling of “lobo” loans to UK Local Councils
111: Fraud and criminal mismanagement in connection with account management for the former prime minister of Georgia
112: Forcing customers to switch from variable (“tracker”) mortgages into fixed rate mortgages – in a falling / low rate environment
113: Mis-selling expensive life insurance products to little old ladies in France
114: Facilitating African money laundering on a grand scale
115: Misleading Libor submissions with the aim of boosting confidence in the bank’s perceived credit worthiness
116: Conspiring to facilitate VAT evasion through manipulative carbon trading transactions
117: Knowingly misleading a major investor in a high stakes deal
118: Misleading inexperienced officials in nascent Libyan SWF into complex and ultimately loss making derivative trades
119: Mishandling of the proceeds of securities offerings for a state investment fund
120: Offering for use, false and misleading valuation opinions on M&A transactions to curry favour with wealth management clients
121: Abusive practices in handling mortgage arrears
122: Errors and abuses connected with reverse mortagages and related foreclosures in NY State
123: Manipulation of Australian Bank Bill Swap Rate – BBSW.
124: Forging client signatures to create unwanted credit card account and then harassing the individual for non payment of charges relating to a card never applied for
125: Dismissing employees who failed to make their sales targets through fraudulent behaviour
126: Forcing distressed banking clients to hire a turn-around consultant who recommended expensive new lending facilities and from whom the banker received personal kickbacks
127: Collusion to falsify accounts of Italy’s third largest bank
128: Violations in connection with IPO underwriting and distribution (UBS/DB HK)
129: Lending money to investors who then invest in the bank’s stock in violation of the law (Iceland proven / UK under investigation)
130: Firing employee for statements made while cooperating with an official investigation/misuse of confidential info
131: Fabricating insurance policies
132: Improper charges to customers who contracted to lock in mortgage rates
133: Forging client signatures and falsifying file documents to bring client records “up to date” and/or cover up wrong-doing.
134: Facilitated Russian money laundering exceeding $700 mio involving flows via fake British companies
135: Faked meetings (lied) with customers to hit tough targets set by superiors
136: Stonewalling government officials investigating abusive practices with respect to retail bank accounts
137: Facilitating Netherlands related tax evasion and money laundering
138: Supplying personal loans, equal to 24% of the bank’s capital, to the presidential campaign manager by the head of the bank who coincidentally was an advisor to the campaign
139: Committing “Fraud on the Board”: knowingly steering its advisory client into a disadvantageous sale to profit later from business from the buyer
140: Front running client Foreign Exchange orders
141: Improperly extending customers’ mortgages – changing terms without client or court consent
142: Forcing unwanted auto insurance on bank car loan customers
143: Failure to pass on to thousands of home loan customers lower mortgage charges in violation of the rights of borrowers to “tracker rates” contractually tied to the falling ECB rate
144: Manipulation of government backed small business support programs – pushing borrowers into the scheme and then cutting back other credit facilities to the same borrower
Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/11/city-boys.html.
Reference 2: https://www.finance-watch.org/robert-jenkins-partial-list-of-bank-misdeeds/.
Reference 3: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/chancellor-announces-appointment-of-robert-jenkins-as-an-external-member-of-the-interim-financial-policy-committee. Published 5th July, 2011. 'The Chancellor today announced that, in consultation with the Governor of the Bank of England, he has appointed Robert Jenkins to the interim Financial Policy Committee (FPC) as an external member to fill the vacancy left by the departure of Sir Richard Lambert'. So one might suppose that the chap has reasonable provenance.
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