This short post today is concerned with the issue of banking penalties, particularly as it is was revealed today by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) that banks have, globally, paid $321 billion in fines since the Financial Crisis of 2007/08. The majority of those fines have been levied by U.S. Regulators – The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) – especially. So, for this post the issue will be whether this rate of punishment will continue and at what level, and then to look at the issues facing the E.U. as the spotlight turns to them and how they will punish the financial elites. As we will see, the E.U. has a specific set of circumstances which must be considered which, in the grand scheme of things, heavily impacts upon its ability to punish financial elites. The report by BCG was forthright in its assessment that the heightened level of fines and regulation is not to be considered as a reaction that will regress any time soon, which is quite an assessment in light of recent p...