Culture, culture, and culture. With the recent rash of banking malpractice, it's hard to believe that they are all "Isolated rogue traders," and that their isn't a larger issue surrounding the incentives and culture in international financial institutions.
The past several years have been filled with headline-grabbing legal settlements by financial services firms — $11 billion here, $5 billion there. Most of them involved conduct that took place before the 2008 crisis. Virtually every major Wall Street firm has pledged to redouble its efforts to instill an ethical culture. And virtually all the large firms said that if there was bad behavior, it is behind them. Well, it isn’t.