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although banks avoid doing anything illegal

And how many billions of dollars in fines and settlements have all those big banks paid in the past year for all those legal acts they've committed?

At the end, many of the "AAA" mortgage-backed securities were fraudulent: backed by "liars' loans" backed by fraudulently inflated appraisals, and fraudulent statements of buyers' ability to pay.

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Contrary to media perception, the FI I worked with did put a huge amount of resources into preventing illegal activity. Of course trying to avoid legal trouble doesn't necessarily prevent it.

In my brief and painful experience, FIs genuinely do avoid breaking the law. But they don't mind breaking the spirit of the law by finding a way around it.

Bankers don't really care about fines. Sure $16B here or there hurts, but as long as no one goes to jail most of those losses are absorbed by shareholders. Top management already got their bonuses.

I've seen some argue that the sheer volume and complexity of financial law actually makes it easier for bankers to find loop-holes and insulate themselves. I'm not familiar enough to truly judge the truth in that theory.

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