Four banks fined by UK regulator for sharing information about gilding

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Four banks agreed to pay fines totaling more than £ 100 million after the investigation into the UK, found that employees used chat Bloomberg to share secret information on the gilding.

Citi, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Canada agreed to resolve individual matters with the powers of competition and the behavior markets that took place between 2009 and 2013.

It was found that a small number of traders from banks participated in “illegal” exchanges Exchange of sensitive information In one on one Bloomberg Chals about the UK government’s bond prices

Deutsche Bank was also subject to a probe, open CMA in 2018, but received immunity to notice about its behavior, ordinary practice within the regulator’s invariance policy, where the “business involved in the cartel” helps in the investigation.

Penalties are the latest fines in the global bank for sharing sensitive information in the currency and bond markets. In 2021, the European Commission fined a group of banks of 371 million euros for participating in a cartel in the primary and secondary market of European government bonds, sharing prices and other confidential information ahead of the debt auction.

HSBC, Morgan Stanley and RBC received a 10 percent reduction in the settlement after Below They expressed their objections, while Citi received a 55 percent discount, partly for the settlement before the regulator made objections.

“The fines imposed today reflect CMA’s commitment to the fight against the violation of the competition law on competition and restraining anti-component behavior,” said Juliet Enunus, Executive Director for Competition in CMA.

“The fines would be much higher if the banks had no longer taken unusually wide steps to make sure it would not happen again,” she added.

Citi, Deutsche, HSBC and Morgan Stanley had one in the UK for a trader who shared in bilateral Bloomberg chats and RBC-two. None of the traders still still work in banks, CMA said.

Most of the information that exchanges between banks related to gilded auctions. Traders in Deutsche Bank and RBC were also coordinated by trading strategies for germ “limited times,” CMA said.

Deutsche and RBC also had the highest volume of messages with traders in banks who exchanged information about 41 dates between November 2009 and April 2013.

Citi and Deutsche have recognized their involvement before CMA released their preliminary conclusions in 2023, while HSBC, Morgan Stanley and RBC recognized any violations. The statements sent to the Financial Times at the time, RBC and Morgan Stanley said they did not agree with the regulator’s conclusions, while HSBC said it “refutes” the allegations.

Morgan Stanley said on Friday he “made a commercial decision to hold a line under this long -term investigation.” The HSBC press -secretary said the Bank is “the Council to put this investigation into us.” Citi and RBC said they were happy to solve the case.

All banks said their preservation has improved significantly since the incidents occurred.

The CMA did not say whether the exchanges were limited or distorted by market competition.