Keystone-SDA
The EU Court of Justice has reduced the fine against Credit Suisse, to 28.9 million euros against 83.2 million before, while confirming its participation in an agreement in the cash operations sector.
(Keystone-ATS) “If Credit Suisse actually participated in the agreement, the Commission did not correctly determine the replacement value of the value of its sales to fix the amount of the fine sanctioning this offense,” justifies the Luxembourg -based institution in a statement published on Friday. The data used by the Commission “were less complete and reliable than those offered for this purpose by Credit Suisse during the administrative procedure”.
The case dates back to the early 2010s. At the end of an investigation, the European Commission revealed that between 2011 and 2012 that certain traders in charge of cash exchange operations (Forex), working for various banks, had exchanged sensitive information on an online professional discussion forum called Sterling Lads. “These exchanges of information allowed the traders to make decisions knowingly regarding the opportunity to sell or buy these currencies and at the time to carry out such operations,” recalls the document.
Through these behaviors, five establishments, namely Credit Suisse, Barclays, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and UBS, “reduced their uncertainty in this sector and have therefore distorted free competition”. The Commission adopted a transaction decision with regard to the last four cited that cooperated with it during the investigation and granted a fine conditional immunity to UBS. The two -sails’ bank not having cooperated, the Commission inflicted a fine of 83.2 million euros.
Considering himself injured, UBS Group, who took over Credit Suisse Group, UBS AG, buyer of Credit Suisse AG, and Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) LTD, challenged the decision before the European Union court. The latter rejected the request to have the committee ‘decision canceled, but partially canceled the contested decision and therefore reduced the amount of the fine.