Deutsche Bank AG and Royal Bank of Scotland Group are among six companies fined a record 1.7 billion euros ($2.3 billion) by the European Union for rigging interest rates linked to Libor.
Deutsche Bank was fined 725 million euros, the biggest single penalty. Societe Generale SA was fined 446 million euros and RBS must pay 391 million euros, the EU said in a statement in Brussels. The combined fines for manipulating the yen London interbank offered rate and Euribor are the largest-ever EU cartel penalties.
While global fines for rate-rigging reached $6 billion today, the cost to banks may climb as they face more investigations and lawsuits worldwide. EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said the penalties wont be the end of the story as regulators continue to probe additional cases linked to Libor and currency trading.
It is only a question of time until the banks pay more, said Alex Koagne, an analyst with Natixis SA in Paris who has a buy recommendation on Deutsche Bank. Everybody wants this to end. Investors want to be able to analyze the underlying performance of the banks business while the management teams at the banks want to focus on improving that performance.
Citigroup has a 70 million-euro penalty and RP Martin Holdings was fined 247,000 euros.
BANKING INDEX
The Bloomberg Europe Banks & Financial Services index dropped as much as 1.7 percent to 102.86, extending a two-day decline to 3.6 percent, the biggest loss in more than three months. Deutsche Bank shares were trading 1.7 percent lower at 3:31 p.m. in Frankfurt trading. Societe Generale shares also fell 1.5% in Paris trading.
Zurich-based UBS AG and London-based Barclays Plc werent fined because they were the first to inform the EU of the cartels. UBS avoided a potential 2.5 billion-euro fine and Barclays escaped a 690 million-euro penalty. Citigroup also avoided an extra 55 million-euro fine for blowing the whistle on one part of the cartel, the commission said. An EU accord includes a finding of liability that can be used in civil cases.
JPMorgan Chase, London-based HSBC Holdings and Credit Agricole SA pulled out of the Euribor settlement and ICAP withdrew from the Libor negotiations. All four companies continue to face an antitrust probe, the EU said.
JPMorgan Chase has cooperated fully with the European Commission throughout its investigation and does not believe that the firm engaged in wrongdoing with respect to the Euribor benchmark, the New York-based bank said in a statement.
YEN LIBOR
JPMorgan will separately pay 80 million euros to settle the yen Libor case regarding the conduct of two former traders during a one-month period in early 2007, it said. The bank was the only one not to receive any reduction for cooperating with regulators.
The settlement doesnt determine whether the banks management knew of or was involved in the rate fixing or whether the traders actions had any impact on JPMorgans Libor submissions or the published rate, the bank said.
Deutsche Bank, based in Frankfurt, said the fine reflects, in particular, the high market share held by Deutsche Bank in the markets investigated. The levy will be covered by the banks existing provisions, it said. It set aside an extra 1.2 billion euros in October to cover legal costs, later increasing its reserves to 4.1 billion euros.
PAST PRACTICES
The settlement relates to past practices of individuals which were in gross violation of Deutsche Banks values and beliefs, Juergen Fitschen and Anshu Jain, co-chief executive officers, said in an e-mailed statement.
Almunia said transcripts of Internet conversations between traders showed appalling evidence of collusion. Such chats are now targeted by regulators in benchmark rigging probes. Deutsche Bank this week barred multi-party chat rooms at its fixed-income and currency trading businesses as regulators
Deutsche Banks fine is still topped by the EUs highest- ever cartel penalty for a single company when Cie. de Saint Gobain SA was ordered to pay 880 million euros for plotting with rivals to fix the price of windows sold to car manufacturers.
PREVIOUS RECORD
The combined fines set a record, exceeding 1.47 billion euros levied last year on Royal Philips Electronics NV and nine others for a TV parts cartel.
RBS, which paid $612 million in a settlement with U.S. and U.K. regulators, said todays fines are covered by provisions already made and management has strengthened oversight of how the bank submits information to Libor and other trading rates.
Societe Generale said it was fined for inappropriate conduct by one employee who left Societe Generale in September 2009 and who mainly responded to manipulation requests from a person at another bank.
Attempts to fix the Euribor rate occurred for the most part between March 2006 and March 2007, it said in an e-mailed statement. The settlement didnt mention any impact on the Euribor rate as a result of this behavior, it said.
Citigroup is pleased to resolve this matter with the European Commission and to put this investigation behind us, the New York-based bank said in an e-mailed statement. Andrew Honnor, a spokesman for RP Martin, declined to comment. ICAP declined to comment.
The London interbank offered rate, or Libor, is calculated by a poll carried out daily on behalf of the British Bankers Association that asks firms to estimate how much it would cost to borrow from each other for different periods and in different currencies. The top and bottom quartiles of quotes are excluded, and those left are averaged and published for individual currencies before noon in London.
