Breaking up the biggest banks because they are perceived as "too big to fail" is unrealistic. What is needed, however, are improvements in the transparency and the accountability of governance in these institutions.

The Standard Chartered agreement with the Department of Justice actually anticipates dismissals of its crime. It states that if Standard Chartered denies its crimes, it must issue a new statement within five days after the government orders it.

There is the possibility that the Justice Department really believes that prosecuting the criminal activities of Bank of America or JP Morgan could sink the economy. If this is true then it make the case for breaking up the big banks even more of a slam dunk.

LONDON — The HSBC banking group saw its net profits drop nearly 17 percent in 2012, as it counted the cost of a hefty U.S. fine it paid to settl...

A verdict delivered earlier this month by a prominent federal judge heightens the prospect that the nation’s largest financial institutions will be ...

* Structure was "not fit for purpose" in modern world -CEO * Says structural change was biggest in HSBC's history ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — British bank HSBC will pay $249 million to settle federal complaints that its U.S. division wrongfully foreclosed on homeowners wh...

* Drug cartels used complex scheme to launder money * Smuggled dollars to Mexico, put them in HSBC accounts ...

With the help of three ghosts, Scrooge finally reached redemption by learning to give to others. As events of the past two weeks have shown, modern bankers have their own ghosts to face: federal prosecutors.

The HSBC money-laundering settlement demonstrates conclusively that the Dodd-Frank reforms have not ended so-called "Too-Big-to-Fail" problem. The outrage about HSBC getting off so lightly has been too narrowly focused.

HSBC marks the triumph of crony capitalism in the U.S. and the U.K. Fraudulent SDIs have no permanent alliances or ideology -- only permanent interests in being above the law and free of "free" market competition.

ZURICH Dec 19 (Reuters) - Swiss bank UBS was hit with a $1.5 billion bill and admitted to fraud on Wednesday in order to settle charges of manipulat...

As part of the HSBC settlement, did Obama and Cameron's officials require HSBC to blow the whistle on tax frauds? Did they require HSBC to provide them with a full intelligence briefing on how the networks of tax evasion and tax havens function?