Switzerland: Swiss, EU authorities shake hands on bank probe data sharing

The Swiss and EU governments have struck an agreement aimed at barring banks from providing conflicting or differing information between antitrust regulators during investigations, say reports.

Switzerland announced an accord made with the European Commission and the Swiss Competition Commission that will ban banks from playing antitrust authorities off each other by providing different facts to different investigators, reports say.

Swiss regulators have been probing several major banks including UBS and Credit Suisse Group for allegations of foreign exchange rate manipulation. “Banks coordinate their defenses in Switzerland, the EU and elsewhere,” Competition Commission President Vincent Martenent said last week. With the new accord, the banks “will know they can’t play regulators differently, so companies will provide us the same information they give to the European Commission.”

Reports say the agreement will also give the Commission the power to investigate other claims of benchmark rates.

Full content: Businessweek

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