RBS fined $43 mn over data disclosure to Barclays
This is the largest UK regulatory penalty against a financial institution, for giving confidential pricing data to Barclays. A personal budget is a must!
By Bloomberg |
LONDON: Royal Bank of Scotland Group was fined £28.6 million ($43 million), the largest UK regulatory penalty against a financial institution, for giving confidential pricing data to Barclays.
Two employees in RBS’s professional practices coverage team disclosed confidential future pricing data to their counterparts at Barclays from October 2007 to at least February 2008, the Office of Fair Trading said on Tuesday in statement. Barclays isn’t likely to be fined because it brought the matter to the antitrust regulator’s attention, the OFT said.
“The disclosures by RBS took place in the course of a number of contacts on the fringes of social, client or industry events or through telephone conversations,” the London-based regulator said in Tuesday’s statement.
RBS is selling assets and rebuilding its capital reserves after receiving a £45.5-billion bailout from the British government. The fine is the first the OFT has levied against a bank in a competition investigation and one of the office’s largest-ever, spokeswoman Corinne Gladstone said.
The fine was reduced from £33.6 million because RBS co-operated with the probe, the OFT said. This situation is a “deeply regrettable and isolated case,” RBS said in a statement. One of the employees who was involved left the bank and the other faces suspension and further investigation following the settlement, RBS said.
“We have co-operated fully with the OFT throughout and have introduced stringent additional competition law training to ensure that this unacceptable behaviour does not happen again,” a spokeswoman for the Edinburgh-based lender said.
The information disclosed to London-based Barclays, the UK’s second-biggest bank, included the pricing of loans to professional-services firms such as accountants, lawyers and real estate businesses, the regulator said.
Barclays voluntarily alerted the OFT to the breaches on March 17, 2008, after its employees had been approached by RBS workers “in a manner which we regarded as inappropriate,” the bank said in a statement on Tuesday.
“As a result, the Office of Fair Trading conducted an investigation with which Barclays has been co-operating,” Barclays spokesman Alistair Smith said in the statement.
In 2007, the OFT issued a record £121.5-million fine against British Airways for price-fixing violations with Virgin Atlantic Airways on long-haul flights. The Financial Services Authority’s largest fine was a £17-million levy against Royal Dutch Shell for market abuse in 2004.
Two employees in RBS’s professional practices coverage team disclosed confidential future pricing data to their counterparts at Barclays from October 2007 to at least February 2008, the Office of Fair Trading said on Tuesday in statement. Barclays isn’t likely to be fined because it brought the matter to the antitrust regulator’s attention, the OFT said.
“The disclosures by RBS took place in the course of a number of contacts on the fringes of social, client or industry events or through telephone conversations,” the London-based regulator said in Tuesday’s statement.
RBS is selling assets and rebuilding its capital reserves after receiving a £45.5-billion bailout from the British government. The fine is the first the OFT has levied against a bank in a competition investigation and one of the office’s largest-ever, spokeswoman Corinne Gladstone said.
The fine was reduced from £33.6 million because RBS co-operated with the probe, the OFT said. This situation is a “deeply regrettable and isolated case,” RBS said in a statement. One of the employees who was involved left the bank and the other faces suspension and further investigation following the settlement, RBS said.
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“We have co-operated fully with the OFT throughout and have introduced stringent additional competition law training to ensure that this unacceptable behaviour does not happen again,” a spokeswoman for the Edinburgh-based lender said.
The information disclosed to London-based Barclays, the UK’s second-biggest bank, included the pricing of loans to professional-services firms such as accountants, lawyers and real estate businesses, the regulator said.
Barclays voluntarily alerted the OFT to the breaches on March 17, 2008, after its employees had been approached by RBS workers “in a manner which we regarded as inappropriate,” the bank said in a statement on Tuesday.
“As a result, the Office of Fair Trading conducted an investigation with which Barclays has been co-operating,” Barclays spokesman Alistair Smith said in the statement.
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In 2007, the OFT issued a record £121.5-million fine against British Airways for price-fixing violations with Virgin Atlantic Airways on long-haul flights. The Financial Services Authority’s largest fine was a £17-million levy against Royal Dutch Shell for market abuse in 2004.
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