The European Commission has fined a group of major global banks a total of 1.7 billion euros (US$2.3 billion) for colluding to profit from the interest rates market. The banks, which include JP Morgan, Citigroup and HSBC, are accused of manipulating European and Japanese benchmark interest rates that affect hundreds of billions of dollars in contracts globally, from mortgages to credit card bills, for years.
The Commission, the EU’s executive arm, is only the latest to punish banks for profiting from manipulating interest rates, after similar cases brought by US and national European market regulators. “We want to send a clear message that we are determined to find and punish these cartels,” competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia said.
The banks named as participating in cartels were Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Societe Generale, Credit Agricole, HSBC, JPMorgan, UBS and Citigroup.
