The European Commission informed Deutsche Bank and Rabobank on Tuesday 6 December of its preliminary view that they have infringed EU antitrust rules by colluding to distort competition in the trading of euro-denominated sovereign bonds, SSA (supra-sovereign, foreign sovereign, sub-sovereign/public agency) bonds, covered bonds and government guaranteed bonds.
The Commission is concerned that between 2005 and 2016, the two banks, through some of their traders, exchanged commercially sensitive information and coordinated their pricing and trading strategies when trading these bonds on the secondary market in the European Economic Area (‘EEA’). These exchanges would have taken place mainly through e-mails and online chatroom communications.
If the Commission’s preliminary view was confirmed, such behaviour would violate EU rules prohibiting anti-competitive business practices such as collusion on prices and other trading conditions (Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement).
The Commission initially agreed to explore the possibility of reaching a settlement with the companies concerned, but then broke off the discussions due to their stalemate and decided to revert quickly to the normal antitrust procedure. This procedure will now run its course.
Sending a Statement of Objections does not prejudge the outcome of an investigation.
This is the Commission’s third cartel investigation into the bond trading market. In April 2021, the Commission fined three investment banks a total of €28 million (SSA bonds in US dollars). In May 2021, the Commission found that seven investment banks had participated in an EGB trading cartel and imposed fines totalling €371 million. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)