UK banks ‘haven’t paid for crash’

UK watchdogs have fined the banks that sparked the financial crisis just £3.6billion – compared with more than £115billion in penalties handed out by tough US regulators.

As the UK approaches the tenth anniversary of the credit crisis in 007, critics claim not enough has been done to change the culture that led to the selling of toxic mortgage bundles and interest rates rigging.

Since then, the US Department of Justice has hit banks with more than $150billion of fines (£115billion).

At the same time, analysis by the Mail has found banks in the UK, including RBS, Barclays and HSBC, have been fined only £3.6billion by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and its predecessor, the Financial Services Authority. The biggest fine in the US was a record £1 .7billion paid by Bank of America, while the largest in Britain was £ 84million for Barclays.

Justin Modray, of consumer group Candid Financial Advice, said: ‘The fines have not been high enough. They have certainly not stopped the actions regulators want them to stop – the mis-selling of products that are not in the customer’s best interests.’

However, the FCA yesterday pointed to a different regulatory regime in the US and said lenders have been forced to pay £ 7.4billion to customers for mis-selling PPI since 011.