Banks Paid Nearly $11 Billion In Fines In 2012

 Major banks this year paid $10.7 billion in fines for a host of transgressions, including money laundering and foreclosure fraud. As CNN Money noted, “Slightly more than half of the fines were related to improper mortgage practices.” However, those fines won’t put much of a dent in the financial sector’s bottom line, as “Thomson Reuters estimates that the financial sector stocks in the S&P 500 earned $167.7 billion in profits this year, up 21% from 2011.”