According to British media, 20 of the world's largest banks spent a total of 264 billion pounds ($341.5 billion) on fines, legal bills and compensation for unfairly treated customers in the five years to 2016. The new study questions the efforts of these major players in the financial services industry to restore confidence in the industry.

The CCP Research Foundation, which collected the data, is one of the few institutions to analyze the "behavioral costs" of banks, according to the Guardian's website on August 14.

The study said the data showed that the impact of bad behaviour continued to hang over the banking sector in the decade after the global financial crisis.

According to the latest analysis, the total amount of funds set aside by the banks surveyed exceeded 28.6 billion pounds in 2016, up from the previous year. The money peaked at £63 billion in 2014.

Chris Stiles, the foundation's director of research, wrote in the latest report: "the stubbornly high behavioral cost reservation is worrying. "

"it remains to be seen whether these earmarked funds will translate into actual expenditure in 2017 (or later), and what impact this will have on the overall cost of behavior," he wrote. "

Two of the top five banks with the highest behavioral costs are British banks:Royal Bank of ScotlandAndLloyd.Bank.

RBS set aside extra money mainly to pay fines related to the upcoming penalties imposed by the US Department of Justice for the illegal sale of "toxic bonds" on the eve of the financial crisis.

Lloyds has set aside more than 17 billion pounds in response to the payment protection insurance scandal.