New Survey Confirms Exactly What Everybody Hates About Wall Street

Wall Street bankers are feeling a greater willingness to violate laws and ethics to get ahead, according to a new survey that finds no discernible impact from years of record fines and tightened regulations.

One-quarter of respondents said they would violate insider trading laws to make a $10 million return as long as they knew they wouldn’t get caught, according to a survey of 1,200 financial professionals conducted by University of Notre Dame at the behest of the law firm Labaton Sucharow. That was actually a slight uptick from the previous survey, when the percentage stood at 24%.

Respondents weren’t exactly impressed with regulatory oversight either. Nearly half deemed the regulatory agencies ineffective at detecting and prosecuting illicit behavior.