The financial world has a love-hate relationship with banks throughout the globe. On the one hand, they form the foundation of economies. On the other hand, they abuse that power, are the most likely entities to destroy the financial system, and are far more concerned about making themselves rich than responsibly caring for our money.
Now, there are tons of cases in history when banks have really messed up, destroying lives and their countries’ stabilities. But we don’t expect them to scam us. Surely we can rely on them to take our money with legitimate ruses? Actually, as these 10 scandals show, banks have committed some of the most outrageous scams and cons in history. A similar UK-facing list can be found here.
10 – Bear Stearns mortgages

Mortgage
Getting a mortgage is anxiety-inducing for everyone, but that’s on our own account. We’re worried about the commitment of paying it back for the indefinite future. But Bear Stearns (and others) gave us more reason to worry in 2008. They committed mortgage fraud on an immense scale, by pledging the same mortgages to multiple buyers.
Bear Stearns went down in the financial crisis, having played a significant part in causing it, but as yet, no one has been brought to account by the law.
09 – The Wall Street Mafia

The Wall Street – By Jim in Times Square (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Carollo, Goldberg and Grimm were all convicted of fraud in 2012, but the banks faced no sanctions.
08 – Morgan Stanley inflate ratings

Morgan Stanley Building – By Alex Proimos from Sydney, Australia (Morgan Stanley Headquarters) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
In other words, they got supposedly independent agencies to inflate ratings to their benefit, when they should, in fact, have remained the same.
07 – Libor scandal

Barclays Global Investors – By BrokenSphere (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons
The legal costs and fines related to the Libor scandal has driven down banks’ profitability, and has been a catalyst for further mistrust of the banking sector.
06 – HSBC’s neglect funds terrorists

HSBC – Cheqbo at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
HSBC admitted to negligence but have defended themselves against claims of greater collusion with Mexican drug cartels.
05 – Morgan Stanley charge fake storage fees

Morgan Stanley – via flickr by Arabani
And back to Morgan Stanley. None of us expect our banks to hold all of our assets. When we invest in precious metals, we’re not doing so because we want nice jewellery. But Morgan Stanley claimed that their clients would own their precious metals in full, and the company would store them. They went ahead and charged storage fees for these metals. Problem is, the storage did not actually exist. They had simply found a clever way to defraud clients of their money.
Morgan Stanley ultimately paid out $4.4 million dollars to settle a class-action lawsuit.
04 – Bank of America defrauds Home Affordable Modification Program

Bank of America – Coolcaesar at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
In 2012, a whistleblower revealed the sordid details, and in 2013, homeowners who had been affected filed a class action. Unfortunately, their suit was not allowed to proceed, due to restrictions on class action suits, rather than a lack of evidence.
03 – Foreign Exchange Manipulation

Foreign exchange – By epSos.de [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
The scandal is estimated to have caused a loss of £7.5 billion a year for British pensioners alone.
02 – Lloyds Banking Group’s useless insurance

Lloyds Bank – By Oosoom at en.wikipedia (Transferred from en.wikipedia) [GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons
The level of compensation paid out has already reached $30.3 billion, and probably won’t end until 2018.
01 – Wells Fargo Bank charges higher prices for non-whites

Wells Fargo Bank – By Xnatedawgx (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons