Traders of different banks discussed their bank’s submissions for the calculation of the European equivalent of LIBOR, EURIBOR, as well as their trading and pricing strategies.
RBS was fined £109m for its eight-month-long participation in an attempt to rig prices of Euro interest rate derivatives. Barclays participated in the cartel for 32 months but escaped a £573m fine because it acted as a whistle blower.
Commission vice-president Joaquín Almunia said: “What is shocking about the LIBOR and EURIBOR scandals is not only the manipulation of benchmarks, which is being tackled by financial regulators worldwide, but also the collusion between banks who are supposed to be competing with each other.
“Today’s decision sends a clear message that the Commission is determined to fight and sanction these cartels in the financial sector. Healthy competition and transparency are crucial for financial markets to work properly, at the service of the real economy rather than the interests of a few.”
Between September 2005 and May 2008, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, RBS and Société Générale attempted to distort the pricing of Euro interest rate derivatives linked to the interbank lending measure, the EURIBOR.
Meanwhile, between 2007 and 2010, RBS, UBS, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, JP Morgan and RP Martin colluded on at least one occasion to skew the pricing of interest rate derivatives denominated in Japanese Yen.
