Crédit Agricole and J.P. Morgan were among financial institutions that found themselves in the cross-hairs of the European Central Bank for faulty risk assessments and risk reporting and failing to protect consumers from fraud risks. All of those companies fined also missed compliance deadlines.

The European Central Bank (ECB) and other regulators are not backing away from imposing multi-million-euro penalties for rule breakers, based on their enforcementr activity in February.

Ruth Prickett graduated from Cambridge University with a BA hons in History and has specialized in business and finance journalism for the past 20 years. She was editor of Financial Management, the magazine...