UK banks’ rosy performance in the Bank of England’s stress tests was helped along by lower stressed misconduct charges, which were nearly half in the 2018 round what they were the year prior. Actual misconduct charges reported by six of the seven participating firms at end-2017 were also half their prior year level and have continued to trend lower in 2018.

The BoE wrote that stressed misconduct costs – legal and regulatory expenses incurred over and above loss provisions  – totalled £25