Banks want assurances from U.S. regulators that they will not be barred from certain businesses before agreeing to plead guilty to criminal charges over the manipulation of foreign exchange rates, causing a delay in multibillion-dollar settlements

op's original comment which he is probably going to delete.

I work in tech for a bank - (relevant to this article actually). Can't say which one etc obviously. Anyway - basically the reason they can is because they will be able to fight this for decades and decades. It is extremely costly essentially to run an investigation and it interferes with government and banking which is bad for the economy and governance of course. So it's basically "plea and give us money as punishment and we put it behind us, also sack anyone who did the wrong thing/give them up for prosecution and we'll all move on." It's not ideal. I don't like it. But here we are. I think one thing that people forget is that the guys who end up at the top - have long stopped needing the money. It becomes a matter of pride and it literally defines who you are. So when you're thrown out of the industry or business there is a serious amount of shame, a shame and a very intimate attack on everything about what you have spent decades defining yourself to be. They may still be rich when they get the boot even if fined or jailed (which lets face it, is unlikely). But it cripples the person. No need to feel sorry for them of course, my point is that they get theirs too. Just not in the financial sense that would really harm the rest of us. But deep in the head. I like to think there is justice in that. I get a lot of shit for working for a bank even as a Software Engineer. But I can tell you - people of the cunt variety in banking are a small few. The culture is changing. But the traders tend to still have an element of it in them that brings the rest of us down. Mostly though, it is incompetence and bureaucracy that causes these things. It is rarely someone being a fuckhead intentionally (though I'm sure that still happens - like with the young traders who formed a syndicate to price fix not too long ago across a few banks, all of whom were sacked I believe) - pardon the language. edit: I tend to delete my comments so I can be a little personal. So this one will disappear 24 hours from now for the same reason.

/r/worldnews Thread Parent Link - reuters.com