As the government's largest effort to compensate victims of the banks' foreclosure practices comes to a close, ProPublica's Paul Kiel reports that it won't be much of an ending: roughly 3 million borrowers will receive no more than $500. He goes into the history of robo-signing and other aggressive practices that caused homeowners who weren’t behind on their mortgage payments to face foreclosure. His latest article is "For Most Homeowners, Gov’t Foreclosure Deal Brings A Few Hundred Bucks."

Since 2007, nearly 500 banks of failed, but rather than sue those banks for losses and malfeasance, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has opted for settlements that often go unreported. LA Times reporter Scott Reckard talks about having to obtain information about FDIC settlements through a Freedom of Information Act request.

It's been one year since five of the nation's biggest banks reached a $25 billion settlement with state attorneys general across the country over charges that the banks used faulty practices to foreclosure on hundreds of thousands of homeowners. 

Ten major banks and mortgage companies are settling with federal regulators over accusations they wrongfully foreclosed on homeowners.

More than four years after the 2008 financial crisis, public trust in banks is as low as ever. Sophisticated investors describe big banks as “black boxes” that may still be concealing enormous risks— the sort that could again take down the economy. Jesse Eisinger's investigation, written with Frank Partnoy, is called  “What’s Inside America’s Banks” and appears in the January/February issue of The Atlantic.

UBS has pled guilty to manipulating global interest rates, and will pay $1.5billion in fines. Liam Vaughan, Bloomberg UK finance reporter, discusses the case and the implications for financial regulation.

Federal and New York authorities are expected to announce a record $1.9 billion settlement with HSBC over money-laundering charges on Tuesday, sending a message that banks can't skirt U.S. sanctions law while doing business in the United States.

A bank in South Africa announced this summer that its mobile banking customers will now be able to conduct transactions and monitor their accounts through Facebook. This type of cross-pollination between banks and social media does not yet exist in the United States, but it could be coming.

New York's financial regulator said Tuesday that his agency has reached a $340 million settlement with Standard Chartered Bank to resolve an investigation into whether the British bank schemed with the Iranian government to launder $250 billion from 2001 to 2007.

Yesterday in Washington, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle were talking about the structure and behavior of big banks. Tim Geithner offered testimony about the LIBOR rate-fixing scandal. And comments by a former Citigroup CEO led to buzz about the return of Glass-Steagall, which prevented banks from getting too big. Wall Street Journal economic policy reporter Damian Paletta discusses the latest.

HSBC spent ten years failing to comply with regulatory measures, according to a new report from the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. They enabled drug lords to launder money in Mexico, did business with banks linked to Al Qaeda, and bypassed American Sanctions against Iran.

This is bigger than Obamacare. It's much more significant than Romney continuing as CEO of Bain after 1999. It has a far greater impact on every American this election year than any other issue the candidates have been discussing or will address in presidential debates this fall.

It has been a tumultuous year for big banks, and today is turning out to be no different. JPMorgan and Wells Fargo released their earnings reports today.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has become the latest bank to get hit with a fine for their role in an interest rate rigging scandal. William Cohan, a former employee at JP Morgan, says this sort of rate fixing undermines the public's faith in capitalism.

Barclays Bank chairman, Marcus Agius resigned today. This comes a week after Barclays was fined $ 450 million for alleged manipulation of interest rates. The practices of Barclays and a number of other banks are under scrutiny because of a wide-ranging investigation by regulators. Agius has been chairman of Barclays since 2007 and he'll stay with the bank until his successor is found.

Nine of America’s biggest banks are being asked to submit plans for how they could be dismantled by the government if the bank was near default. Will these "living wills" improve regulation and bank functioning?

Washington Mutual, or WaMu as it was popularly known, once marketed itself as the bank of the little guy. But WaMu is no longer that bank around the corner. What happened?