The European Commission has imposed fines, valued at 371 million euros, on three investment banks.
The decision came after it discovered that seven institutions had agreed several years ago to harm competition in the bond market.
However, only three banks were fined: the Japanese Nomura, with 129.5 million euros; the Swiss UBS, with 172.4 million; and the Italian UniCredit, with 69.4 million.
The Bank of America and the French Natixis escaped from the penalty by statute of limitations.
European Commission fines banks
As for the British bank Natwest (formerly Royal Bank of Scotland), it escaped a fine of 260 million euros because it disclosed the understanding between the banks to the Commission.
The incidents, which extend from January 2007 to November 2011 are related to the purchase and sale of European government bonds in the primary and secondary markets.
“It is unacceptable, that in the middle of the financial crisis, when many financial institutions had to be rescued by public funding these investment banks colluded in this market at the expense of EU member states,” EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said.
Sharing sensitive information
According to the investigations, the agreement was made by a group of merchants who were in regular contact with each other, especially in discussion rooms at Bloomberg stations.
They were exchanging commercially sensitive information, the investigation said.
At the end of April, the Commission imposed a total of 28 million euros in fines on the banks, Credit Suisse, Credit Agricole and Bank of America for their understanding in bond markets and agencies linked to the dollar. Deutsche Bank was relieved after the case was exposed.
In May 2019, five banks were fined more than one billion euros due to two agreements between their brokers regarding currency exchange operations during the financial crisis between 2007 and 2013.
It is noteworthy that the European Commission is the executive branch of the European Union. It is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding EU treaties and managing the daily business of the European Union.
This institution of the European Union operates as a ministerial government with 27 members (known informally as the “commissioners”).
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