Four major banks have been fined for breaching competition laws by sharing “sensitive” information on UK government bond trading in online chats, Britain’s financial regulator said Friday.
Citi, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Canada will pay a combined total of over £100 million ($127 million) in fines for anti-competitive activities between 2009 and 2013, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said.
Deutsche Bank, also subject to the probe, was spared a fine as it had alerted the regulator of its conduct.
“The banks have agreed to pay fines for specific instances in which traders shared competitively sensitive information about aspects of the pricing of UK bonds,” the regulator said.
The information was shared by a small number of traders in private one-to-one Bloomberg chat rooms, it added.
The watchdog said the size of the fines takes into account the length of time passed since the infringements and the “extensive compliance measures” that the banks have since put in place.
The firms have until April 2025 to pay the fines.
Citi faces a smaller fine after it admitted its involvement in anti-competitive activity and entered into a settlement agreement.
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) noted in a separate statement that “the conduct in question was historic and our compliance environment has significantly enhanced over the last decade since it occurred.”
RBC added that the two employees involved no longer work at the bank.