New York regulators will not stop filing suit against the big banks until they have successfully driven most large financial institutions out of the Empire State, banking analyst Richard Bove told CNBC on Monday.
From questionable hiring practices in China to concerns about the home foreclosure process in the United States, New York regulators have filed lawsuit after lawsuit against the big banks. And, there doesn't seem to be any end in sight.
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Bove, vice president of equity research at Rafferty Capital, argued the heightened scrutiny has sent New York banking jobs elsewhere. BNY Mellon shipped jobs to Bangalore, India, for example, while Goldman Sachs chose to grow its staff in New Jersey and Utah instead of the Big Apple, he said.
"There used to be at least a dozen, you know, banks and brokerage firms that were headquartered in New York that were of great size. They're not there anymore," said Bove, who entered the securities experience in 1965. "And the ones that are left, they're pulling money and jobs out of New York, and why are they doing it? Well, one of the key reasons, you've had three attorney generals in a row, who just can't stop suing them."
But, of course, not everyone shares Bove's sympathy for the banks.
Andrew Stoltmann, who appeared on "Closing Bell" with Bove, called his defense of the big banks "one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard."
"If you don't want to pay the fine, don't do the crime," said Stoltmann, a partner at Stoltmann Law Office, who specializes in securities litigation. "The banks have nobody to blame except themselves and for them to be pointing the finger and saying, 'The regulators are beating us up, this is so unfortunate, we're going to elsewhere'—look, you have yourself to blame."
—By CNBC's Drew Sandholm. Follow him on Twitter @DrewSandholm.