Elizabeth Warren Senate Banking Committee

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., grills regulators at a Senate Banking committee hearing on thursday, Feb. 6, 2014. Warren, a bankruptcy expert turned legislator, has used her committee assignment to bring attention to the fact that despite hefty government fines, some financial institutions are engaging in questionable and illegal practices because the federal government never holds a trial and the profits outweigh the fines. (Photo taken from C-Span video)

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has, since her first Senate Banking Committee hearing, used the power of her committee assignment to make good on a campaign promise to push for additional Wall Street reforms, considering the financial crisis which nearly led to the collapse of the entire U.S. economy.

This week, she continued on that mission. Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, took a stand against JP Morgan Chase's decision to give CEO Jamie Dimon a nearly 75 percent raise, despite his leadership during an era when the company's questionable trading practices led to the loss of billions of dollars.

"In 2013 alone, JP Morgan spent nearly $13 billion to settle claims with the federal government. Claims relating to its sale of fraudulent mortgage-backed securities, its illegal foreclosure practices like robo-signing, its manipulation of energy markets in California and the midwest, and its handling of the disastrous London Whale Trade," Warren said during a Senate Banking Committee hearing in Washington Thursday. "You might think that presiding over activities that led to payouts for illegal conduct would hurt your case for a fat pay bump."

But Dimon was actually heralded by the company's board of directors because in 2013 JP Morgan's stocks jumped more than 30 percent, despite a record $13 billion settlement with the government. Dimon's compensation grew to $20 million a year, thanks to the raise.

To Warren, the fact that the company boosted Dimon's pay to reward him despite the company's engagement in a myriad of illegal activities again brings into question the government strategy of Securities and Exchange Commission regulators investigating claims of wrongdoing only to, by default, settle the claims without an actual trial and absolutely no criminal charges being brought against anyone.

"I think this raises questions over whether our enforcement strategy is working or whether it's actually so bad that we're making it more likely for big banks to break the law," Warren said, adding that it is now a common theme in the banking industry to make money by any means necessary because the government fines will never reach the level of profits potentially made through questionable and illegal practices.

"Does anyone on this panel seriously think the government's current enforcement system for financial crimes is actually working in the sense of deterring future lawbreaking?" Warren asked the regulators.

Daniel Tarullo, a member of the board of governors for the Federal Reserve, told Warren that the board is more concerned with a company's overall financial fitness than executive compensation following claims of wrongdoing.

The allusion Tarullo made to the "too big to fail" mentality of the government treading lightly around financial institutions amid claims of wrongdoing has been on Warren's radar in the past. In a speech delivered to Better Markets and George Washington Law School's Center for Law in September, Warren repeated her call for a 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act which would limit commercial banks, which take deposits from the public, from engaging in certain kinds of financial trades and transactions used by investment banks.

On the campaign trail in 2012, Warren told a New York Times columnist that although she thinks a new Glass-Steagall Act would have limited banks like JPMorgan from becoming "too big to fail," the provision alone "probably" wouldn't have prevented the bank's financial loss in the risky trade.

Still, she considers it a common-sense measure which has actually gained support from Republicans and independents, despite the staunch opposition from some in the GOP to any further financial industry regulations.

Warren has more recently taken aim at the nature of government settlements, offering up bipartisan legislation called The Truth in Settlements Act. The legislation would require federal agencies to make public all the details of a settlement with a company amid claims of wrongdoing, not just the dollar figure of estimated value often touted in press releases announcing such settlements.

That bill was introduced in January and referred to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee.