PARIS (MNI) – The European Commission said Friday it has initiated
two antitrust investigations into the behavior of sixteen U.S. and
European investment banks active in the credit default swaps (CDS)
market.

The first case will examine whether the sixteen banks, along with
leading financial information provider Markit, “have colluded and/or may
hold and abuse a dominant position in order to control the financial
information on CDS.” Such behavior, “if proven,” would violate the
European Union’s anti-trust rules, the Commission said.

The second case will look at the relationship between nine of the
banks and ICE Clear Europe, which is the leading clearing house for CDS.
In particular, the Commission wants to determine whether preferential
tariffs granted by ICE to the nine banks have the effect of “locking
them in the ICE system” to the detriment of competing clearers.

CDS gained considerable notoriety during the financial crisis
because they were used to speculate against some large institutions and
later against Greece in the early days of the Eurozone’s sovereign debt
turmoil.

CDS are meant to protect investors in case a company or a sovereign
government in which they have invested defaults on its payments. But
they are also used as speculative instruments.

“CDS play a useful role for financial markets and for the economy,”
the Commission said in a written statement. “Recent developments have
shown, however, that the trading of this asset class suffers a number of
inefficiencies that cannot be solved through regulation alone. We are
therefore opening two new cases to improve market transparency and
fairness in the CDS market.”

The sixteen banks being targeted in the CDS probe are: JP Morgan,
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citigroup,
Commerzbank, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs,
HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS, Wells Fargo
Bank/Wachovia, Credit Agricole, and Societe Generale.

The probe will also examine the license and distribution agreements
of Markit, a UK-based company created originally to enhance transparency
in the CDS market. Markit is also known for the purchasing managers’
index (PMI), a widely watched forward-looking economic indicator in many
major economies of the world.

“The Commission is now concerned certain clauses in Markit’s
licence and distribution agreements could be abusive and impede the
development of competition in the market for the provision of CDS
information,” the Commission said.

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