Sure my comment was probably over-simplified, but I was imagining fines as coming out exclusively of whatever slice of money goes to the beneficiaries of public companies, vs. something that comes out of a bank account or operating expenses.

So any money that _would_ have been paid out to shareholders (bonuses, dividends, buybacks) is what goes to pay the fine, until it is paid. This would dis-incentivize decisions that benefit shareholders at the risk of breaking rules. We all hear about fines being "one day of operating expenses" and so on.. So who cares about getting fined then.

In retrospect I'm sure this isn't that realistic as companies would just do accounting gymnastics to get around this, as many do for other accounting rules.

And it would probably impose an undue burden on auditing to make sure money is put in the right buckets etc...

Extra percentage points on their tax rate? The question is if they could use more aggressive tax avoidance schemes to counteract this?