The bottom line on both cases is that the bank failed to make the requisite disclosures to prevent their clients--the ones to whom they owed fiduciary duties--from making misinformed financial decisions while the bank profited from those same misinformed decisions. In the case of Bernie, it was letting them hand their money to a fraudster.
Originally Posted by Karl Hungus
If you are talking about Chase, generically a bank in which a customer deposits money has no "duty" to prevent the customer (or warn the customer) about foolish expenditures and/or investments. Unfortunately "bankers" involve themselves at times in "counseling" and/or "advising" customers who have relatively large sums of "dormant" deposits on "good" earning opportunities in order to "churn" the funds and earn the bank fees for "investing" the money.
Once the "banker" becomes a "counselor" or "advisor" then a "duty" exists.
My "rule of thumb" is ... as to the individual (not the business) ... if you don't have a lot more money in your "pocket" for discretionary spending than I do, then please don't try to "counsel" OR "advise" me on how to invest.