Citing “unsafe and unsound” foreclosure practices, the Federal Reserve said recently that it plans to penalize eight financial firms — HSBC’s United States bank division, SunTrust Bank, MetLife, U.S. Bancorp, PNC Financial Services, EverBank, OneWest and Goldman Sachs. We’ll believe it when we see it.

If recent history is any guide, regulators are more likely to offer the banks a way to avoid fines for harmful and egregious behavior. That means there will be no deterrent against future misbehavior.

A year ago, the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency entered into legal agreements with the nation’s biggest banks and with many of those cited above, requiring them to clean up their sloppy foreclosure processes. In February, they finally got around to assessing a total of $1.2 billion in penalties against the big guys, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup.

The banks do not have to actually pay the fines. The regulators said that no money will be owed as long as the banks fulfill their obligations under a separate $26 billion foreclosure settlement with state attorneys general and the Department of Justice. Most of that obligation can be met through loan modifications and other relief.