Compensation payouts and legal bills will cost the big four UK banks £19bn ($29.83bn, €26.55bn) during this year and next, reports the credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s.
These payments will be in addition to the £42bn already paid out by the four banks in the past five years – and the £6bn levied on the next nine largest lenders.
Mis-selling, one of the banks’ main ethical breaches, will account for just over £5bn of the £19bn, say the Standard & Poor’s analysts. Other litigation could cost another £13bn.
The cost for the two years is only slightly less than the £22bn paid out by the four banks in the past two years. The analysts said: “We doubt that these ongoing charges will lead on their own to negative rating actions, primarily because we believe that the affected banks have sufficient capital buffers, according to our assessments.”
