LUXEMBOURG, July 23 — An EU court today slashed an €83.2 million (RM412 million) fine Brussels imposed on Credit Suisse for engaging in a forex trading cartel, arguing it had been miscalculated.
The Luxembourg-based General Court upheld the European Commission’s finding that the bank engaged in anti-competitive practices — but reduced the related fine to €28.9 million.
The court said that the data the commission used “in determining the proxy for the value of Credit Suisse’s sales” was less reliable than that provided by the Swiss lender during the proceedings against it.
The commission, the European Union’s antitrust regulator, therefore “miscalculated the basic amount of the fine that it imposed,” the court concluded.
The ruling can be appealed before the EU Court of Justice.
Credit Suisse was among a group of banks that the commission slapped with fines totalling €344 million in 2021 after a long antitrust probe.
This revealed that traders in charge of spot foreign exchange transactions on major currencies acting on behalf of the banks coordinated their trading strategies sometimes through an online chatroom called “Sterling Lads”.
The alleged cartel included Barclays, RBS and HSBC as well as UBS — but the latter avoided a fine as it came forward voluntarily to cooperate with authorities.
It was UBS that appealed the commission’s decision against Credit Suisse, having acquired its former rival after it collapsed in 2023. — AFP
