Fines imposed by the main US financial watchdogs were nearly two-thirds lower in the first six months of Donald Trump's presidency than a year earlier — a comparable period in the Obama administration, write Jean Eaglesham, Dave Michaels and Danny Dougherty for The Wall Street Journal.

Penalties handed out by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in the first half of 2017 were $489m, according to analysis by the Journal. That compares with $1.4bn in the first six months of 2016 and puts the agencies on track for the lowest annual level of fines in at least seven years.