Swiss watchdog fines banks €93m over rate cartels

The Swiss Competition Commission (Comco) fined several European and US banks almost 100 million Swiss francs (€93.1m) over interest rate cartels, the latest punishment dished out in connection with rate-rigging scandals.

Comco began its investigation in December 2012, after Barclays became the first bank to settle allegations it had attempted to manipulate the London interbank offered rate (Libor), paying a $450 million (€431m) fine to US and UK authorities.

The Comco penalties announced on Wednesday, the largest of which was a 33.9 million franc fine for JPMorgan Chase & Co, are relatively small compared to other sanctions doled out in rate-rigging cases.

However they are a further sign of the collusion which took place in the setting of interest rate derivatives, used by banks and companies to manage the risk of interest rates fluctuations.

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Comco said several banks had participated in cartels over Swiss franc Libor, the bid-ask spread on Swiss franc interest rate derivatives, Yen Libor, Euroyen Libor and Euribo.

The JPMorgan fine came after Comco concluded it operated a bilateral cartel with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) with the aim of influencing the Swiss franc Libor benchmark between March 2008 and July 2009, Comco said in a statement.

RBS received full immunity for revealing the existence of the cartel to the Comco.

Barclays was fined 29.8 million francs for participating in a cartel in euro interest rate derivatives, Comco said.

Proceeding are ongoing against BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, HSBC, JPMorgan and Rabobank over the euro interest rate cartel, Comco said.

– Reuters