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4 Banks, Including JPMorgan, Fined in Europe Over Cartel Behavior
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of New York Times
Posted: November 3rd, 2014
http://dealbook.nytimes.com//2014/10/21/4-banks-including-jp...
The European Commission on Tuesday fined four major financial institutions 93.9 million euros, or about $120 million, over two types of activity that it deemed as cartel behavior. In one case, the European Commission fined JPMorgan Chase 61.7 million euros for manipulating the Swiss franc Libor benchmark interest rate in an illegal bilateral cartel with the Royal Bank of Scotland. Interest-rate derivatives such as forward rate agreements, swaps, futures and options are financial products intended to help manage interest-rate fluctuations. In December 2013, the European Union fined several global financial institutions a combined 1.7 billion to settle charges that they colluded to fix benchmark interest rates. Regulators accused R.B.S. and JPMorgan of trying to distort the process used to price interest rate derivatives. In a separate settlement also announced on Tuesday, the European Commission said R.B.S., UBS, JPMorgan and Credit Suisse, operated a cartel on bid-ask spreads of Swiss franc interest-rate derivatives, imposing fines worth a total of 32.4 million. from May to September 2007, R.B.S., UBS, JPMorgan and Credit Suisse agreed to quote to clients wider, fixed bid-ask spreads on certain categories of franc interest-rate derivatives. The banks maintained narrower spreads for trades among themselves. The aim was to lower the banks transaction costs and continue the flow of trades between themselves while preventing others from participating on the same terms in the franc derivatives market. Global financial institutions have paid more than $6 billion in fines over manipulating benchmark rates.
Note: For more along these lines, see the excellent, reliable resources provided in our Banking Corruption Information Center.
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