The European Commission has reached a settlement with eight banks, imposing a fine totalling €1.71 billion, for creating illegal cartels in financial derivatives, based on inter-bank interest rates.

Shocking

“What is shocking about the LIBOR and EURIBOR scandals is not only the manipulation of benchmarks, which is being tackled by financial regulators worldwide, but also the collusion between banks who are supposed to be competing with each other,” Joaquín Almunia, Commission Vice-President in charge of competition policy, said in a statement today.

“Today's decision sends a clear message that the Commission is determined to fight and sanction these cartels in the financial sector,” he added.

Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain, co-chief executives at Deutsche Bank, said: “Today’s settlement marks one important step in our efforts to resolve the bank’s legacy issues. The settlement relates to past practices of individuals which were in gross violation of Deutsche Bank’s values and beliefs. Acting with integrity is a core value at Deutsche Bank, and we expect every employee to adhere to it. We are attaching the highest institutional importance to ensuring that this type of misconduct does not happen again.”

At Barclays, meanwhile, the bank said: “Barclays voluntarily reported the EURIBOR conduct to the Commission and cooperated fully with the Commission’s investigation. In recognition of this cooperation, Barclays has been granted full immunity from the financial penalties that would otherwise have applied.”

Barclays has seen the resignation in the summer of 2012 of its high-profile chief executive, Bob Diamond, in the wake of the LIBOR scandal.

“Barclays is not among the banks found by the Commission to have engaged in anti-competitive conduct relating to Japanese Yen Libor and is not party to the Commission’s settlement in that case, also announced today,” the bank said.

Duration

The EIRD cartel operated between September 2005 and May 2008, the European Commission said. “The cartel aimed at distorting the normal course of pricing components for these derivatives. Traders of different banks discussed their bank's submissions for the calculation of the EURIBOR as well as their trading and pricing strategies,” it said.

The YIRD cartel, meanwhile, was revealed when the European Commission uncovered seven distinct bilateral infringements lasting between one and 10 months in the period from 2007 to 2010.