(Finance) – The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has provisionally noted that 5 big banks – You quote, Deutsche Bank, HSBC extension, Morgan Stanley And Royal Bank of Canada – they have illegally sharing competitively sensitive information participating in one or more one-on-one chat series between 2009 and 2013.
Information exchanges took place in the Bloomberg chatroom among a small number of traders who worked at banks and related to the buying and selling of UK government bonds, especially gilts and gilt asset swaps. This included details on pricing and other aspects of their trading strategies, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority said in a statement.
By illegally exchanging competitively sensitive information instead of fully competing, the banks involved in these deals “could have deny all the advantages of competition to those with whom they negotiatedincluding, among others, pension funds, the UK Debt Management Office (which sells gilts by auction) and finally the UK Treasury and UK taxpayers,” it argues.
Deutsche Bank warned the CMA of its participation the alleged wrongdoing under the CMA’s leniency policy e Citi has asked for leniency during the investigation of the CMA. Both banks have admitted to their involvement in anti-competitive activities, and provided they continue to cooperate and meet the leniency conditions, Deutsche Bank will not be fined and any fines Citi receives will be reduced.
The results of the CMA are provisional. Deutsche Bank and Citi have admitted to participating in the alleged one-on-one conversations that apply to them. HSBC, Morgan Stanley and the Royal Bank of Canada have not admitted to any wrongdoing. At this stage, it should not be assumed that any of the banks have broken the law.