Wednesday, December 4, 2013

EU fines 8 major banks record 1.7bn euro for rigging rates

The European Commission has slapped record fines of 1.7 billion euro on eight major banks for manipulating lending rates that play a key role in the global economy. The penalties will add to already escalating costs for leading global lenders.
The EU fines marks the latest to be levied on banks and financial institutions for making profits or masking their problems by fraudulently rigging the rates that reflect the cost of lending money to each other.
The banks fined are Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, JPMorgan, Barclays, Societe Generale, UBS and RP Martin, the EC said in a statement.
The borrowing rates involved - the London interbank offered rate (Libor), the Tokyo and the euro area equivalents - are used to set price of trillions of dollars of financial products, ranging from mortgages to derivatives.

“What is shocking about the Libor and Euribor scandals is not only the manipulation of benchmarks, which is being tackled by financial regulators worldwide, but also the collusion between banks who are supposed to be competing with each other,” said Joaquín Almunia, European Commission Vice-President in charge of competition policy.
“Today's decision sends a clear message that the Commission is determined to fight and sanction these cartels in the financial sector," Almunia said in the EC statement. "Healthy competition and transparency are crucial for financial markets to work properly, at the service of the real economy rather than the interests of a few."
The EC ruling said that the fine for each lender was calculated on the basis of the level of its involvement in the manipulations and how well it was cooperating with the investigation.
The fines from the EU are the first time a US bank has been involved in the rate-rigging scandal, as Citigroup has been fined 70 million pounds.
The record antitrust penalties comes as a reminder of the banks' past “financial sins,” when global lenders artificially lowered the cost of interbank lending, partially to hide their financial troubles.
The Libor rate is seen as an indicator of a lender’s stability. Put simply, the stronger the bank, the lower the interbank lending rate it has.
Barclays, RBS, UBS, Rabobank and brokerage ICAP have already paid out a total of $3.5 billion in fines to settle the accusations related to Libor rate-rigging, the Financial Times reported.
Until these fines, the EU has tended to refrain from getting involved in rate-rigging cases, focusing instead on investigations related to breaches of antitrust law. 
Manipulation of the Libor rate is one of the largest scandals to hit the finance industry in recent years.
It forced both Barclays CEO Bob Diamond and chairman Marcus Agius to resign. Barclays’ new chief Anthony Jenkins has now insisted that employees sign a “code of honor” to avoid future rigging scandals.
Among other countries holding their own separate investigations into rate-rigging are Canada, Japan and Singapore. 
 http://rt.com/business/banks-rates-libor-manipulation-690/
4/12/13
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4 comments:

  1. Πρόστιμο ρεκόρ της Κομισιόν σε τράπεζες για χειραγώγηση διατραπεζικών επιτοκίων....

    Περίπου 1.71δις € πρόστιμο για χειραγώγηση των διατραπεζικών επιτοκίων επέβαλε σήμερα (4 Δεκεμβρίου) η Κομισιόν σε ομάδα τραπεζών.

    Το πρόστιμο ρεκόρ επιβλήθηκε σε 6 τράπεζες μεταξύ των οποίων η Citigroup, η Deutsche Bank και η Royal Bank of Scotland.

    «Το συγκλονιστικό των σκανδάλων LIBOR και EURIBOR δεν είναι μόνο η χειραγώγηση των επιτοκίων, που αντιμετωπίζεται από τις οικονομικές ρυθμιστικές αρχές σε όλο τον κόσμο, αλλά και η συμπαιγνία μεταξύ των τραπεζών που υποτίθεται ότι πρέπει να ανταγωνίζονται μεταξύ τους», δήλωσε ο Επίτροπος Ανταγωνιστικότητας, Joaquín Almunia.

    «Η σημερινή απόφαση στέλνει ένα σαφές μήνυμα ότι η Επιτροπή είναι αποφασισμένη να καταπολεμήσει και να επιβάλει κυρώσεις στα καρτέλ στον χρηματοπιστωτικό τομέα. Ο υγιής ανταγωνισμός και η διαφάνεια είναι ζωτικής σημασίας για να λειτουργήσουν σωστά οι χρηματοπιστωτικές αγορές, στην υπηρεσία της πραγματικής οικονομίας και όχι τα συμφέροντα των λίγων», συμπλήρωσε.

    EurActiv με Reuters
    http://euractiv.gr/oikonomia/prostimo-rekor-tis-komision-se-trapezes-gia-xeiragogisi-diatrapezikon-epitokion
    4/12/13

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  2. Manipulation des taux : pourquoi 8 banques doivent payer 1,7 milliard d'euros d'amende....

    La Commission européenne leur a infligé une sanction record pour avoir manipulé les taux interbancaires de référence. Francetv info remonte aux origines de ce scandale.

    La Commission européenne parle d'un "cartel". Elle a infligé, mercredi 4 décembre, des amendes à huit établissements financiers qui ont manipulé les taux de référence en euro et en yen, l'Euribor, le Tibor et le Libor, pour un montant total record de 1,7 milliard d'euros. Ces taux interbancaires servent de référence pour la fixation des prix ou des rémunérations de centaines de milliers de milliards d'euros d'actifs et de produits financiers dans le monde, parmi lesquels des prêts immobiliers ou des produits dérivés.

    En fonction de leur implication dans le scandale, la Deutsche Bank, la Société générale, Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland, JPMorgan, UBS et le courtier RP Martin ont été condamnés à des amendes atteignant jusqu'a 725 millions d'euros, détaille le communiqué de l'UE. Francetv info remonte le fil de cette affaire.
    Tout commence avant la crise

    Nous sommes en septembre 2005. La crise des subprimes n'a pas encore balayé le monde de la finance mondiale, mais déjà, "le marché est stressé", se souvient BFMTV. "Il y a un risque qu’il craque et que les établissements bancaires se retrouvent coincés sur la gestion de leur liquidité à court terme."
    Des traders s'entendent sur un taux interbancaire en euro

    En Grande-Bretagne, en Allemagne, ainsi qu'en France, des traders peu scrupuleux de Barclays, de la Deutsche Bank, de RBS et de la Société générale décident alors de passer outre les règles de concurrence en vigueur afin de limiter leur risque. Ils choisissent d'abord d'agir sur l'Euribor, le taux de référence appliqué aux échanges en euros uniquement. Concrètement, ils discutent "des soumissions de leur banque pour le calcul de l'Euribor ainsi que de leurs stratégies de négociation et de fixation des prix", écrit la Commission.

    Ainsi, ces traders parviennent, dans la plus grande discrétion, à fausser l’évolution normale des composants du prix pour ces produits dérivés. La combine se révèle efficace. Du moins jusqu'en 2008.
    L'entente fait ses preuves, et s'applique au yen

    La manipulation ne s'applique aux taux d'intérêt en yens (JPY) qu'en 2007. Ces derniers sont rassemblés sous deux sigles : Libor et Tibor. Cette fois, des établissements américains figurent parmi les banques impliquées dans une ou plusieurs infractions, soit UBS, RBS, la Deutsche Bank, Citigroup et JPMorgan, détaille la Commission.

    En tout, "la Commission a mis à jour 7 infractions bilatérales distinctes d'une durée de 1 à 10 mois commises entre 2007 et 2010". Pendant ces trois années, des traders de ces établissements discutent entre eux "de certaines soumissions LIBOR en JPY". "Ils ont aussi échangé, à plusieurs occasions, des informations commercialement sensibles relatives soit aux positions de négociation, soit à de futures soumissions LIBOR en JPY (et, pour une des infractions, à certaines soumissions futures pour l'Euroyen TIBOR)", résume encore la Commission européenne..............http://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/europe/bruxelles-inflige-une-amende-record-a-8-banques-dont-la-societe-generale_474202.html#xtor=RSS-3-[lestitres]
    4/12/13

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  3. Rate Scandal: Deutsche Bank's First Big Fine Won't Be Its Last....

    Subprime mortgages, currency tricks, interest rate fixing: Wherever supervisory authorities have probed crooked deals of the past, Deutsche Bank comes up. Now Germany's biggest bank has had to pay its first big fine. It won't be the last.

    The statement had already been prepared: "We are attaching the highest institutional importance to ensuring that this type of misconduct does not happen again," the chief executives of Deutsche Bank, Anshu Jain and Jürgen Fitschen, said in a statement shortly before midday on Wednesday. Minutes earlier, the European Commission in Brussels had slapped record fines totaling €1.7 billion ($2.3 billion) on six international banks. Deutsche Bank's share was the biggest by far at €725 million.

    The Commission concluded that Germany's biggest bank, together with three other banks, was part of a cartel that manipulated the Euribor benchmark interest rate. It also said the bank colluded illegally in setting the equivalent London and Tokyo rates. The banks had admitted their misconduct and agreed to a settlement, said Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia.

    It's the first major fine Deutsche Bank has has to pay for its past sins,and it's unlikely to be the last. The bank is embroiled in many lawsuits around the world, most of them related to the time before the 2008 financial crisis.

    • Several US authorities are targeting the perpetrators of the financial crisis -- banks that bundled and sold the controversial mortgage-backed securities from home loans. JP Morgan Chase alone has to pay $13 billion. Deutsche Bank faces possible claims running into billions of dollars.

    • Deutsche Bank also faces a hefty fine in its neverending battle with the heirs of the late media tycoon Leo Kirch. A Munich court has already sentenced the bank to pay compensation but Deutsche Bank has lodged an appeal with the Federal Court of Justice. Kirch's lawyers blame the bank for the media empire's collapse in 2002. They want around €2 billion in compensation.

    • There are also accusations of manipulation in the currency markets. A number of supervisory authorities have launched probes, including BAFin, the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority. But a BAFin spokesman said there is no indication that traders from German banks have been involved. However, the FBI is reported to have paid a Deutsche Bank trader in New York an unannounced visit. Deutsche Bank is the world's largest currency trader.

    The €725 million fine is unlikely to be the last payment in the interest-rate fixing case. The bank may even face a higher fine. Supervisory authorities in countries including the US and UK are also investigating the case.

    They have already imposed fines on four banks: Swtzerland's UBS, Britain's Barclays, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Dutch Rabobank had to pay a total of almost $4 billion. Analysts expect Deutsche Bank to reach a settlement next year. Germany's BAFin is also investigating Deutsche Bank's interest business.

    'Integrity Is a Core Values' ........http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/deutsche-bank-ordered-to-pay-big-fine-in-rate-fixing-scandal-a-937260.html
    4/12/13

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  4. Deutsche Bank will mit Kapitel Libor abschließen...

    Noch bis Jahresende soll der Skandal um manipulierte Zinsen endgültig vom Tisch sein: Die Deutsche Bank arbeitet zurzeit an einem Vergleich mit britischen und US-Behörden – Insidern zufolge sehr erfolgreich.

    Die Deutsche Bank will das letzte Kapitel im Zinsskandal nach Angaben aus Finanzkreisen bis Jahresende schließen. Dazu werde an einem Vergleich mit den Behörden in Großbritannien und den USA gestrickt, sagten zwei mit der Sache vertraute Personen der Nachrichtenagentur Reuters.

    „Man arbeitet auf Hochtouren daran, das Thema vom Tisch zu kriegen“, betonte einer der Insider. Eine Einigung sei allerdings komplex, weil so viele verschiedene Regulierungsbehörden involviert seien. Auch die "Wirtschaftswoche" berichtete, die Deutsche Bank sei beim Thema Libor auf der Zielgeraden.

    Das Finanzinstitut bekräftigte, dass es mit den Behörden intensiv zusammenarbeite. Zu den aktuellen Informationen wollte es sich am Samstag nicht äußern.............http://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/banken/zinsskandal-deutsche-bank-will-mit-kapitel-libor-abschliessen/10792990.html
    4/10/14

    ReplyDelete

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