U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said his department is readying criminal cases against banks that show financial institutions aren't too big to prosecute.

Holder, in a video message posted today on the department's website, said improved coordination with regulators is creating a relationship that "will prove key in the coming weeks and months" as prosecutors pursue charges. The government is nearing decisions on whether to charge Credit Suisse Group AG and BNP Paribas SA, people familiar with those probes said. Holder didn't specify any banks.

"I am personally monitoring the status of these ongoing investigations," he said, speaking generally. "I am resolved to seeing them through, and in doing so, I intend to reaffirm the principle that no individual or entity that does harm to our economy is ever above the law."