European justice confirmed on Wednesday a fine of 337.2 million euros for JPMorgan Chase, and slightly reduced that of Crédit Agricole to 110 million, in a case of manipulation of reference interest rates which had affected several financial institutions in the years 2010.
The Court of Justice of the European Union has largely rejected the appeals of the two banks against the fines of 337.2 million and 114.6 million euros respectively, imposed by the European Commission in 2016, according to a press release.
In the crosshairs of the European executive: the agreement of these banks on elements for setting the interbank reference index in euros (Euribor).
The Commission had accused a total of seven banks – Barclays, Deutsche Bank, RBS and Socit Générale, as well as Crdit Agricole, HSBC and JPMorgan – of having participated in a cartel between September 2005 and May 2008, over varying periods.
The first four had accepted a decision by the European executive in the same affair in December 2013: Deutsche Bank, RBS and Socit Générale had been fined, while Barclays had benefited from immunity and escaped any sanction for having revealed the existence of the cartel to the Commission.
On the other hand, Crdit Agricole, HSBC and JPMorgan Chase, which refused to comply with the executive’s verdict, were sanctioned in 2016 and subsequently contested the fines.
The fine for HSBC was definitively canceled in January 2023 by the European courts, while confirming the bank’s participation in the cartel.
On Wednesday, the European Court confirmed the decisions of the previous body, the General Court of the EU.
Euribor (Euro interbank offered rate) is, like Libor, a rate at which banks lend money to each other and which serves as an indirect reference for loans to households and businesses.
The interbank market allows a bank to lend money to its peers or, on the contrary, to borrow money from them, when the amount of its deposits is higher or lower than the credit demand of its clients.