IT'S hardly news that British, US and Swiss banks have been rigging the foreign exchange markets and robbing their own business clients. Bears don't use indoor toilets either, and the Pope isn't a Scientologist.

The latest fines imposed on Barclays, RBS and the rest by the US Justice Department and Federal Reserve total $5.7 billion (£3.7bn) - but they represent no more than 6 per cent of the proceeds of their nefarious activities between 2007 and 2014.

Fiddling the international currency markets is not a victimless crime. Any person or organisation with financial assets could have lost out, not just those in the forex markets. 

Yet nobody will receive any compensation.

Knowing the extent of their faudulent practices and without a leg to stand on in court, Barclays and their confederates had already put aside funds to pay court fines.

Doubtless they will recoup their "losses" by imposing higher fees on their customers.

Not that they need to do even that. By the end of Wednesday, Barclays and RBS shares on the London stock exchange had already risen in value by much more than the fines imposed on them earlier that day.

In the City, crime usually pays.

The banks will keep most of their ill-gotten gains, although ordinary people found guilty of fraud or theft in other walks of life would have to forfeit their proceeds and compensate their victims.

Serial or serious offenders would also face a jail sentence. Previously, City institutions have been caught misselling personal pensions and payment protection, swindling millions of people out of more than £30bn, and rigging interest and currency rates causing incalculable damage. 

However, as before, no banker complicit in this latest scandal will go to prison. Instead, a few minor heads will roll... probably into another lucrative job or early retirement, picking up a fat severance package on the way.

Meanwhile, 36-year old Ruben Da Silva begins a 10-week prison sentence for stealing five jars of coffee in Grantham, Essex, to fund his drug habit. In the US, Timothy Jackson is serving the 19th year of his life sentence for stealing a jacket worth $159, having breached Louisiana's "four strikes" state law.

They should have gone into banking.

Much of what passed for regulation in the City of London was swept aside by Margaret Thatcher's "Big Bang" changes in 1986 and the consequent influx of US big money. The Blair and Brown governments then cosied up to the City vultures instead of clipping their wings.

Today, despite the financial crash in 2008, there is no regulation of Britain's financial sector worthy of the name.

The Treasury, Bank of England, Financial Conduct Authority, Banking Standards Review Council and HMRC are riddled with financiers, ex-financiers and friends of financiers. The Tory Party received more than one-third of its funds from City sources.

It's an open secret in the square mile itself that the gold, silver and derivatives markets (notably interest rate futures) are rancid dens of iniquity. 

Instead of blathering about "fundamental reform" to rebuild British banking and its "crucial role" in Britain's economy, shadow chancellor Chris Leslie should be demanding that banks lose their licences and their top directors appear in the dock.

Better still, Labour should call for the abolition of the City of London's undemocratic corporations status, full public ownership of the banking system and the direction of its funds away from speculation and into productive industry, research and development, green technology and housing.