126 NEWSLETTER 2021 The European Commission Fines Banks for Participating in a Forex Cartel* Can Yıldız Introduction The European Commission (“Commission”) began investigating the collusive behavior of Credit Suisse,1 UBS,2 Barclays,3 RBS,4 and HSBC5 in the Foreign Exchange (forex) spot trading market in 2019.6 With the recent press release dated 02.12.2021, the Commission announced that the case is now closed. As a result of the case, a total of €261 million in fines were imposed on the three banks (Barclays, RBS and HSBC) that decided to settle, while Credit Suisse was fined €83 million under the ordinary procedure as they decided not to settle. UBS acted as the whistleblower and exposed the cartel, thus avoiding any fines. This was the sixth cartel investigation conducted by the Commission in the financial sector since 2013,7 and is the final link in the chain of forex investigations. These investigations show that the Commission has the financial markets in its focus and tends to scrutinize the collusive behavior between banks. The details disclosed by the Commission will be examined below. * Article of December, 2021 1 Credit Suisse Group AG. 2 UBS Group AG. 3 Barclays Plc. 4 Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. 5 HSBC Holdings Plc. 6 Case AT.40135. 7 Other cases included the Euribor/Euro interest rates derivatives case - CASE AT.39914, the Yen interest rates derivatives case - CASE AT.39861, Swiss Franc interest rates derivatives case – CASE AT.39924, SSA bonds case – CASE AT.40346 and EGB bonds case – CASE AT.40324.
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