EU brings forward antitrust charges against Crédit Agricole, HSBC and JPMorgan

“The Commission has concerns that the three banks may have taken part in a collusive scheme which aimed at distorting the normal course of pricing components for euro interest rate derivatives” a Commission announcement notes.

According to the European Commission, the sending of a statement of objections does not prejudge the final outcome of the investigation.
If established, such behaviour violates Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and Article 53 of the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement that prohibit anti-competitive business practices.

It is noted that interest rate derivatives, such as forward rate agreements, swaps, futures, options, are financial products which are used by banks or companies for managing the risk of interest rate fluctuations.
These products are traded worldwide and play a key role in the global economy, while they derive their value from the level of a benchmark interest rate, such as the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (EURIBOR) for the euro.

In October 2011 the Commission carried out unannounced inspections at the premises of several banks and imposed fines in December 2013, totalling € 1.04 billion on four banks active in the same sector.
These four banks had admitted their involvement in a cartel relating to euro interest rate derivatives, which allowed the Commission to settle the case with them. In return, the fines for these four banks were reduced by 10%.