EU freezes bond sales of 10 banks for violating antitrust laws
Agnes Zang, 15 June 2021
As part of its 800 billion euro recovery fund, the European Union has excluded the 10 most hit banks in the debt market from lucrative bond sales because they have historically violated antitrust rules.
Brussels’ The biggest lending frenzy ever Beginning on Tuesday, a new 10-year bond will be sold to fund the NextGenerationEU program under a so-called syndicate and pay a group of banks to attract investor demand.
But according to people familiar with the matter, 10 companies, including major companies such as JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America and Barclays, were told that they were unable to participate in these transactions due to previous scandals involving market manipulation.
A spokesperson for the European Commission, which handles debt issuance on behalf of the European Union, said that banks found to have violated EU competition rules “will not be invited to bid for individual syndicated transactions. “The Commission adopts strict methods to ensure that the entities with which it cooperates are suitable to be EU counterparties.”
The spokesperson added that banks convicted of violating antitrust laws will be required to show that they have taken “remedial measures” to prevent such incidents from recurring before they can be allowed to bid for syndicates.
