The European Commission has established that seven investment banks are guilty of violating antitrust laws during the global financial crisis of 2008, penalizing Nomura, UBS and UniCredit with cumulative fines of 371 million dollars, CNBC reports, according to news.ro.
The seven banks participated in a “cartel of bond transactions” in the secondary and primary market of European government bonds, in the period 2007-2011, according to a Commission communiqué published on Thursday.
“Our decision against Bank of America, Natixis, Nomura, RBS, UBS, UniCredit and WestLB sends a clear message that the Commission will not tolerate any coalition behavior,” said EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.
Nomura, UBS and UniCredit will pay combined fines of 371 million euros.
A Nomura spokesman said the decision was linked to the behavior of two former bank employees for about 10 months in 2011.
“Nomura will consider all options, including an appeal. From the moment of that behavior, Nomura has introduced increased measures to ensure that at all times we carry out our activity at the highest levels of integrity “, said the bank’s spokesperson, by e-mail.
UBS said that “this is an inherited problem, dating back to 2007-2011, and that we took appropriate action years ago to mitigate and improve processes,” adding that it is considering an appeal.
UniCredit has said it will challenge the commission’s decision. A spokesman said in an email: “The group vigorously challenges the decision and claims that the findings do not prove any wrongdoing on the part of UniCredit.”
NatWest, formerly known as RBS, was not fined for reporting the mistakes to the commission. Bank of America and Natixis do not have to pay a fine because their violations exceeded the time limit for sanctions, and Portigon, a former WestLB, was not fined for not reporting net revenue in the last fiscal year.
“It is unacceptable that in the midst of the financial crisis, when many financial institutions had to be rescued with public funding, these investment banks allied themselves in this market to the detriment of EU member states,” Vestager said.
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