The French competition authority has fined 11 banks including Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas a total of €384.9 million for collusion on setting cheque charges.
The banks acted in concert to set interbank cheque fees on 80 per cent of cheques circulating in France between January 2002 and July 2007 as the system became computerised with the arrival of the euro, the authority said in a statement today.
The competition authority is also investigating interbank card charges and will deliver a verdict in 2011, it added.
A spokeswoman for BNP Paribas, which was fined €63.3 million, said the bank was "surprised" at the decision because the cheque fees had been conceived as "transitional" measures with full transparency and in full view of the authorities.
Credit Agricole, HSBC, Banque de France and BPCE had no immediate comment. Spokeswomen at Societe Generale did not immediately return calls for comment.
The banks will be able to appeal against their fines in court but must pay them regardless, a spokeswoman for the competition authority said.
The BNP spokeswoman said the bank had not yet decided upon an appeal.
The biggest individual fines were for Credit Agricole and subsidiary LCL at €100 million and Natixis parent BPCE at €91 million. Societe Generale and subsidiary Credit du Nord were fined €60.4 million, and British-based HSBC received a fine of €9 million.
The fines were set according to each bank's market share of cheques in France, its weight in the economy and past practices. The authority noted six banks including BNP, Credit Agricole and SocGen had been punished for similar collusion in the mortgage market in 2000.
Reuters