Global Banks on Trial : U.S. Prosecutions and the Remaking of International Finance

The book provides a concise, readable, and up-to-date explanation of the numerous criminal prosecutions and large fines imposed on global banks for market manipulation, tax evasion, sanctions evasion, and money laundering. The book connects these cases with broader debates: Are global banks "too big to jail"? How much control can states exercise over global finance? Can they succeed in fighting problems such as market manipulation or tax evasion? Is U.S. unilateralism in this area to be feared, or does it pave the way for beneficial global reforms?

In the years since the 2008 financial crisis, U.S. federal prosecutors have brought dozens of criminal cases against the world''s most powerful banks, charging them with manipulating financial indices, helping their customers evade taxes, evading sanctions, and laundering money. To settle these cases, global banks like UBS, Barclays, HSBC and BNP Paribas paid tens of billions of dollars in fines. They also agreed to extensive reforms, hiring hundreds of compliance officers, spending billions on new systems, and installing independent monitors. In effect, they agreed to become worldwide enforcers of U.S. law, including financial sanctions-sometimes despite their own governments'' protests. This book examines the U.S. enforcement campaign against global banks across four areas: benchmark manipulation, tax evasion, sanctions violations, and sovereign debt. It shows that U.S. prosecutors have unilaterally carved out a new role as global bank regulators, heralding a fundamental shift in how international finance is overseen. Their ability to do so stems from U.S. control over access to vital hubs of the international financial system. In some areas, unilateral U.S. actions have ushered in important multilateral reforms, such as the rise of automatic tax information exchange and better-regulated financial indices. In other areas, such as financial sanctions, unilateralism has attracted protests from other states and spurred attempts to challenge U.S. dominance of international finance.