[1/3] A boat moored on the River Thames. Buildings of the City of London financial district can be seen in the background. The UK government has announced that it will accelerate plans to protect London from flooding caused by climate warming and rising sea levels. May in London, England. 17th 2023….
LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) – Britain’s antitrust watchdog said Deutsche Bank and Citigroup exchanged confidential information on British government bonds between 2009 and 2013, admitting anti-competitive behavior, provisionally. Five banks were found to have violated competition rules.
Meanwhile, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Canada have alleged that they shared information in one-on-one conversations between a handful of traders in Bloomberg chat rooms in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, alleging any wrongdoing. not admitted. .
Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said in a statement on Wednesday that it would consider further statements from banks before reaching a final decision on next steps or possible fines.
According to the CMA, the conversations concerned buying and selling British government bonds, specifically gold bonds and gold asset swaps, and included details on pricing and other aspects of trading strategies.
“These alleged acts … are very serious and justify the detailed investigation that we have undertaken. We may not be able to reap the benefits of full competition for these products, including, but not limited to,” said Michael Grenfell. , Executive Director of Enforcement at CMA.
The CMA said it had not yet determined whether there was sufficient evidence of competition law violations to take enforcement action against either bank. Until then, it should not be assumed that any of them broke the law.
Deutsche Bank has warned of the CMA’s involvement through its leniency policy, and no fines will be imposed if the interim accreditation is upheld. Citi has also reached a settlement with the CMA and will likely get a discount if fined.
A spokeswoman for Deutsche Bank said it secured an “interim immunity” for proactively reporting activities that took place before 2014. Citi said it was cooperating fully with the CMA on the issue and was “glad to have it withdrawn.”
A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman said she disagrees with the CMA’s preliminary findings and plans to appeal.
“Morgan Stanley is cooperating fully with the investigating oversight agency and will continue to be involved in the investigation,” the spokesperson said.
HSBC has denied the allegations and will continue its allegations pending the CMA’s final decision, the London-based bank told Reuters in an emailed statement.
RBC told Reuters it could not comment on ongoing regulatory issues, but said it was cooperating fully with the CMA and taking allegations of employee misconduct very seriously.
In the wake of the financial crisis, the Bank of England supported the UK economy and markets by buying British government bonds, also known as British bonds, through regular buyback auctions.
According to the CMA, these auctions are said to have sparked an exchange of information between some of the banks involved.
Employees in the financial industry use Bloomberg Chat Rooms to communicate with customers and colleagues. The company, a competitor of Thomson Reuters, was not investigated.
Bloomberg did not respond to a request for comment.
Reporting by Sinead Cruz, Editing by Lawrence White
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