HSBC wins court fight as Euribor fine gets scrapped
HSBC has won a £27.9m EU court fight over Euirbor rigging.
Europe’s second highest court annulled the multi-million pound fine for “insufficient reasoning”, despite agreeing that HSBC had infringed the law.
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The fine was slapped on HSBC by EU antitrust regulators in 2016 over rigging the Euribor financial benchmark along with six other banks.
In a statement HSBC said: “We’re pleased that the Court has annulled the fine. We have consistently disputed that our actions constituted anti-competitive behaviour and are considering all aspects of the ruling and our legal options.”
In 2016 HSBC, Credit Agricole and JPMorgan were penalised a combined €485m by the European Commission. All denied wrongdoing, with JPMorgan’s appeal of its much larger fine and Credit Agricole’s challenge both still pending.
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The Commission said traders at the banks exchanged information on their trading positions and pricing strategies via chatrooms or messaging services to maniuplate the Euribor interest rate between 2005 and 2008.