Banks have faced unprecedented scrutiny from regulators along with some of the biggest fines in history. According to the Financial Times, since the financial crisis in 2008, JPMorgan Chase has paid $31.3 billion in fines, settlements and restitution to homeowners and investors; Bank of America has paid $57.8 billion, while Citigroup has coughed up $12.8 billion. Globally in 2014, legal penalties imposed on banks soared to $87 billion, while in 2010 it was less than $10 billion.

An editorial in The Economist (One regulator to rule them all – published 8 August 2015) also highlights the power now in the hands of regulators, which was necessary to protect taxpayers and investors and make the financial markets safer.

But the article also criticises the lack of transparency of regulators in the US, the Eurozone and the UK. For example, the Federal Reserve doesn't reveal the criteria with which it stress tests big American banks, while the process and criteria for defining a bank or other financial institution as a 'systemically important financial institution' (SIFI) is also imprecise. One American insurer, MetLife, is challenging a decision that deemed it to be a SIFI, partly on the basis that the information used in this decision has not been shared with MetLife, according to The Economist.

The article goes on to argue: “But regulators are not the only ones with an interest at stake. Investors in banks, insurers and the like are financially exposed to the decisions of officials. They have rights, too. Systems ostensibly designed to ensure safety can easily backfire: regulators routinely prefer credit to finance property rather than small businesses, for example.”

So while regulators have been justly severe in their treatment of banks since the financial crisis, should they be doing more to create transparency in the financial industry across the board – including in their own back garden? Much has been done to improve regulation of the activities in financial markets. Perhaps regulators also need to demonstrate that they are not just responsible for establishing the rules of the financial markets, but they are also accountable for this process.