Spain’s Supreme Court annuls $100 million fines on four banks for selling derivatives with higher-than-market interest rates

MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s Supreme Court has annulled fines worth 91 million euros ($100 million) imposed on four Spanish banks, including Santander and BBVA, for selling derivatives with higher-than-market interest rates to clients .

The competition watchdog imposed the fines after considering that lenders, including Banco Caixa and Sabadell, had fixed the prices of financial derivatives used to hedge interest rate risks associated with syndicated loans to finance projects by above market rates.

The court said in a statement: “The court considers that it has not been demonstrated that during the entire period investigated from 2006 to 2016 there was a joint plan between the sanctioned entities that justified the legal classification of a single and continuous infringement. «

The court upholds the appeals filed by Santander, BBVA Sabadell and Caixabank against the resolutions of the supervisory authority issued on February 13, 2018.

The CNMC imposed fines of 31.8 million euros on Caixa Bank, 23.9 million on Santander, 19.8 million on BBVA and 15.5 million on Sabadell.

The Supreme Court’s decision is not final and can be appealed.

The CNMC did not want to comment.

(1 dollar = 0.9121 euros)

(Reporting by Jesús Aguado; Editing by Emma Pinedo and Mark Potter)

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2024-01-12 20:52:38
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