MILANO – Trader of a small circle of banks that, especially at the height of the sovereign debt crisis, shared sensitive information among themselves on the bonds that Member States were about to auction, or were in circulation on the market.
For this “cartel” on the euro sovereign bond market, both in auction (the so-called “primary”) and on the secondary market, the European Antitrust has imposed a 371 million fine on Unicredit (69.4 million), Nomura ( 129.5 million) and UBS (172.4 million). The network actually consisted of seven banks, but Bank of America, Rbs and WestLb were not fined (the first two because their involvement falls outside the time limit for imposing sanctions, while Portigon (formerly WestLb) did not generate turnover in the last financial year). Natwest was also part of the game, but he escaped a 260 million penalty by unveiling the cartel. UBS’s own fine was reduced by 45% for cooperating in the commission’s investigation.
The position taken by Unicredit upon publication of the EU decision. In a concise statement, Piazza Gae Aulenti makes it known that it “takes note of today’s decision of the European Commission” but “strongly challenges the decision of the Commission and claims that it does not demonstrate any misconduct on the part of UniCredit”. Therefore, he announces, “he will appeal to the European courts”. From Ubs it is specified: “This is a past issue, dating back to the period 2007-2011. We have already taken the necessary actions years ago with the aim of reducing the impact and improving the processes. We take note of the decision of the European Commission on the matter and we are considering making an appeal. This affair could impact UBS’s second quarter 2021 results by up to $ 100 million. “
The Brussels note explains that the banks in question have not respected the antitrust rules by participating in a cartel of traders on the primary and secondary market of European government bonds (Egb). The Executive Vice President of the Commission, Margrethe Vestager, entrusted his comment to the note: “A well-functioning European government bond market is essential for both the Eurozone and the Member States that issue these bonds to generate liquidity and for investors to buy and trade them. Our decision – he added – sends a clear message that the Commission will not tolerate any kind of collusive behavior. It is unacceptable that, in the midst of the financial crisis, when many financial institutions were bailed out by public funding, these investment banks colluded in this market at the expense of the EU and the Member States “.
In practice, the seven banks participated in the cartel through a group of traders who were in regular contact through the Bloomberg terminal chats, where they shared commercially relevant information, such as the prices offered and volumes before the auctions and the prices shown to their customers or to the market in general and strategies, in view of the auctions of the member states of the euro area for the issue of bonds denominated in euro on the primary market and on the negotiation parameters on the secondary market. All this took place during the financial crisis, between 2007 and 2011 and involved the entire European economic area.
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