​Lawsuits and misconduct fines have cost Britain's largest retail banks and customer-owned lenders almost £53 billion ($74.86 billion) over the past 15 years, a new study has found. The scale of the payouts has hampered banks' efforts to rebuild capital, restricted the amount they are able to lend and reduced dividends for investors. Britain's banks have been hit by scandals ranging from the manipulation of foreign exchange and benchmark interest rates to the mis-selling of loan insurance and complex interest-rate hedging products. While lenders have struggled to return money to shareholders because of the charges, they have continued to pay billions of pounds in bonuses to staff, the study by the independent think-tank New City Agenda said. "The profitability of UK retail banks has been imperilled by persistent misconduct," said John McFall, a director of New City Agenda and former Treasury Committee chairman.

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Full article: Apr 12th 2016, Thomson Reuters