EU bond sales run by four banks previously suspended for antitrust
ishwarkimmins, 29 June 2021
As Brussels sold its new five- and thirty-year debt, four banks that had previously suspended EU bond sales were selected to manage Block’s latest trading on Tuesday.
JP Morgan, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank and UniCredit were banned from participating in the first € 20 billion debt sale to fund the EU’s € 800 billion recovery fund earlier this month due to past antitrust violations. It was one of only 10 lines.
They were later revived after providing evidence of “corrective action” taken by the European Commission to handle debt issuance on behalf of the EU. Goldman Sachs, the fifth bank to trade on Tuesday, was not among the banned banks.
As Brussels transformed into one of Europe’s largest bond issuers, the short-term ban temporarily threatened some of the largest banks in the bond market with a substantial new source of fees. The EU plans to raise € 80 billion for the collection fund by the end of the year and will launch a regular debt auction in September.
As the EU continued, investors ordered more than € 170 billion in debt of € 15 billion sold on Tuesday (€ 9 billion for 5-year bonds and € 6 billion for 30-year bonds). Attract strong demand.
