As U.S. Justice Department prosecutors angle to bring the firstcriminal charges against global banks since the financial crisis,they'll have to stare down warnings of uncontainable collateraldamage.

The 2002 collapse of Arthur Andersen, the accounting firmindicted in the Enron scandal, “should be a lesson” forprosecutors, Brad Hintz, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein &Co., said today in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “Don'tplay with matches.”

Stung by lawmakers' criticism that multibillion-dollarsettlements have done too little to punish Wall Street in the wakeof the financial crisis, prosecutors are considering indictments inprobes of Credit Suisse Group AG and BNP Paribas SA, a personfamiliar with the matter said. Even after talking with financialregulators about ways to mitigate damage—such as ensuring bankskeep charters —prosecutors might not fully understand consequencesfor the market, according to industry lawyers and bankers who arefollowing the case.