And The Wall Street Journal has exposed that nearly half of the $110 billion Wall Street banks have paid in settlements in recent years has been pocketed by the federal government—and has not been paid out to homeowners. In recent years, the United States’ largest banks, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, have paid billions of dollars to settle charges of financial crimes in the mortgage market in the years leading up to the 2008 housing crisis. Top regulators have lauded the record fines extracted in these settlements by saying the money would help homeowners struggling with their mortgages. Yet The Wall Street Journal’s new investigation shows that while about $45 billion did go to homeowner relief, even more of the settlement money, about $50 billion in total, has been simply pocketed by the federal government itself, with almost no disclosure of how the money is being spent.