21st Oct 2014 16:07
Brussels (Alliance News) - The EU slapped multi-million euro fines on three leading world banks on Tuesday for operating two cartels on financial market derivatives, in breach of EU competition law.
In one case, the European Commission fined JP Morgan EUR61.6 million for colluding with the Royal Bank of Scotland to rig the Libor interest rate benchmark for the Swiss franc between March 2008 and July 2009.
RBS blew the whistle on the cartel, avoiding a fine.
Suspicions about rate-rigging date back to the 2008 financial crisis.
The Libor benchmark serves as a reference for everything from mortgages to credit cards.
In December last year, six financial institutions were fined an overall 1.7 billion euros for manipulating interest-rate benchmarks.
In a separate case Tuesday, the EU's executive found that RBS, JP Morgan, UBS and Credit Suisse had colluded over another rate influencing the price of derivatives traded in Swiss francs.
The fine was again waived for RBS. The other three banks face a joint penalty of 32.3 million euros.
"Following consultations with the European Commission, Credit Suisse decided to resolve this matter in a settlement in order to avoid protracted legal proceedings," the bank said.
UBS did not comment on the fine.
The commission found that the four banks were manipulating the so-called bid-ask spread for the Swiss franc. This is the difference between the prices at which traders are willing to buy and sell a given product.
dpa
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