The Court of Justice of the European Union has partially annulled a decision regarding Credit Suisse, despite confirming its participation in a cartel within the spot foreign exchange market. The court declared that the European Commission did not accurately determine the indicative value of the bank’s sales for calculating the fine, reducing the penalty to 28.9 million euros.
In December 2021, the European Commission fined Barclays, RBS, HSBC, and Credit Suisse for their involvement in the currency market cartel, while UBS was exempted from the fine due to its whistleblowing. The penalties imposed were 174 million euros for HSBC, 54 million euros for Barclays, and 33 million euros for RBS, with these amounts reflecting a 10% reduction due to cooperation. Credit Suisse received a fine of 83.2 million euros through ordinary proceedings, as it lacked cooperation.
The General Court of the EU found that certain data used by the Commission to determine Credit Suisse’s sales value was less complete and reliable compared to what could have been used, thus violating the guidelines for calculating fines. This affected informed decisions in buying or selling these currencies among the operators.
The banks had sought either the annulment of the decision or a reduction of the fine amounts, a request that was denied. Following today’s ruling, the financial institutions and the European Commission can appeal to the EU Court of Justice within two months.
The case involved trades of the G10 currencies, which are among the most liquid and globally traded currencies, including the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Swiss franc, US dollar, Canadian dollar, New Zealand dollar, Australian dollar, as well as the Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian crowns.
