If you bother to read the above linked to article you will find that the following banks are just plain idiots:
Royal Bank of Scotland
Santander
Natixis
HSBC
BNP-Paribas
Nomura
BBVA
Insurer AXA
Societe Generale
Credit Agricole
Unicredit
Banco Populare
Reichmuth and Company
Nordea
Ironically I haven't been able to find any direct US banks involved. I say ironically because many of the international banks that have exposure (some in the billions) have complained about the US regulatory scheme and how it failed. While I don't think I can argue with that, it seems this is simply shifting the blame from people who SHOULD have known better.
This is such an easy scam to spot that these banks will end up making every client whole as no court in their right mind will find that there was not a massive breach when it came to due diligence. This pyramid scam was so easy to spot and yet so many people and institutions were suckered into it.
There were many hedge funds, charities and even a senator who invested millions.
All of these banks and any bank that pops up later are idiots. It wasn't enough that our US Banks and regulators failed to police the massive mortgage fraud that was perpetrated on this nation, this is just icing on the cake. Will new regulations really make a difference when old one's clearly are not enforced?
I actually believe there needs to be a new set of regs, I'm just not sure its going to help, so much trust has already been lost.
Scott Dauenhauer CFP, MSFP, AIF
