Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase were more deeply involved in subprime mortgages than Citibank. JP Morgan settled because they assessed the risk of going to court with a possible criminal indictment too great for the bank to take…and survive.

An institutional Citibank shareholder said, “There’s no good PR to go through what your underwriting practices were and the losses that resulted.”

Why is Citi’s penalty so much greater than JP Morgan Chase’s.  Presidential politics?