European Bond Cartel
February 1st, 2019Via: Bloomberg:
Eight banks are being targeted in a European Union probe that alleges traders colluded to acquire and trade euro government bonds, a month after the EU regulators implicated lenders in a separate bond-trading case.
The European Commission didn’t identify the banks being investigated for “a collusive scheme that aimed at distorting competition” for trading sovereign bonds issued by eurozone governments from 2007 to 2012.
“Traders employed by the banks exchanged commercially sensitive information and coordinated on trading strategies” mainly via online chatrooms, the EU authority said in an emailed statement.
The EU’s antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager, is moving her attention to possible collusion between banks in the estimated $9.4-trillion market for European government debt. She’s already extracted huge fines from Google and a massive back-tax bill from Apple Inc. before she ends her five-year term later this year.
