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UBS Calls EU Cartel Fine Too High & ‘Arbitrary’

By  |  June 11, 2023

UBC has expressed criticism towards EU antitrust regulators regarding the calculation of their 172.4-million-euro cartel fine. They claim that the figure was arbitrary and based on inaccurate assumptions, resulting in a significant penalty.

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    In 2021, the European Commission penalized a Swiss bank for participating in a government bond trading cartel during the European debt crisis from 2007 to 2011. According to Reuters, the bank received the largest fine.

    The financial industry has faced significant fines globally in recent years for manipulating foreign exchange, Euribor and Libor benchmarks, as well as bonds.

    Related: UBS Expects To Close Credit Suisse Merger Next Week

    UBS appealed the EU’s decision at the General Court, which is the second-highest court in Europe.

    During a hearing, UBS lawyer Christian Riis-Madsen stated that the EU competition enforcer utilized a figure of almost 300 million euros to calculate the fine, while the bank estimated the relevant value of sales to be 89 million euros.