Rabobank hit with $29 mln EU positive over 2006-16 bond cartel

BRUSSELS, Nov 22 (Reuters) – Dutch financial institution Rabobank was hit with a 26.6-million-euro ($29 million) positive by EU antitrust regulators on Wednesday for participating in a euro-denominated bonds buying and selling cartel for a decade.

Banks around the globe have been fined billions of euros by antitrust enforcers in recent times for rigging key monetary benchmarks and currencies.

The European Fee stated the cartel, which operated between 2006 and 2016, centered on euro-denominated SSA bonds (Supra-Sovereign, International Sovereign, Sub-Sovereign/Company bonds) and authorities assured bonds traded in Europe.

Authorities assured bonds have been issued for a restricted interval as a result of 2008 world monetary disaster.

Deutsche Financial institution (DBKGn.DE) staved off a positive of just about 156 million euros after it alerted the European Union’s competitors watchdog to the cartel, triggering an investigation in 2017.

“Deutsche Financial institution has proactively cooperated with the European Fee on this matter and, consequently, has been granted full immunity,” the German financial institution stated.

The merchants operated at Deutsche Financial institution’s EUR SSA desk in Frankfurt and at Rabobank’s Funding Grade Bonds desk in London to alternate data on costs, volumes in addition to present and future buying and selling methods and positions, the Fee stated.

It stated the merchants used Bloomberg emails, immediate messages and on-line chatrooms to speak.

“Reliable and well-functioning bonds buying and selling markets are essential not just for the nationwide authorities issuing bonds but additionally for the buyers shopping for and buying and selling,” EU antitrust chief Didier Reynders stated in an announcement.

($1 = 0.9168 euros)

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An agenda-setting and market-moving journalist, Foo Yun Chee is a 20-year veteran at Reuters. Her tales on excessive profile mergers have pushed up the European telecoms index, lifted corporations’ shares and helped buyers resolve on their transfer. Her information and expertise of European antitrust legal guidelines and developments helped her broke tales on Microsoft, Google, Amazon, quite a few market-moving mergers and antitrust investigations. She has beforehand reported on Greek politics and firms, when Greece’s entry into the eurozone meant it punched above its weight on the worldwide stage, in addition to Dutch company giants and the quirks of Dutch society and tradition that by no means fail to allure readers.