LONDON (Alliance News) - EU antitrust regulators are set to impose multi-million euro fines on Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and HSBC Holdings PLC, among other banks, for suspected rigging of the Euribor interest rate benchmark, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing a source familiar with the matter.
The other banks to be fined include Deutsche Bank AG, JPMorgan Chase, Credit Agricole, and Societe Generale, according to the source.
Barclays PLC, which alerted the European Commission to the suspected rigging of Euribor, won't be fined.
The European Commission, which serves as the EU's antitrust authority, raided a number of banks for suspected fixing of Euribor, the benchmark used as the basis for pricing trillions of euros' worth of financial contracts.
Reuters said that an official announcement of the fines is expected in December, with some of the banks expected to settle with the commission in return for a 10% discount on the fines they face.
However, a number of the banks are contesting the size of the fines, in which case they will receive formal charges in December, followed by fines at some point in 2014, according to the source.
RBS shares were Tuesday trading down 3.3% at 320.90 pence, while HSBC shares were down 0.7% at 697.9 pence. Barclays shares were down 2.8% at 248.05 pence.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/11/05/uk-eu-euribor-idUKBRE9A40LV20131105
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
Copyright © 2013 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Barclays (BARC)
