Banks, Financial Services, Latvia, Legislation
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Friday, 26.04.2024, 10:00
Latvian Supreme Court upholds decision to fine 22 banks for running cartel
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The decision cannot be appealed.
The banks that initially appealed the CC decision will now have to pay the fine – EUR 7.819 million.
Back in 2011, the Competition Council discovered a cartel among 22 commercial banks regarding commissions on bankcard and ATM services, and decided to fine these banks LVL 5.5 million (EUR 7.81 million) altogether.
Swedbank was imposed a fine of LVL 2.83 million (EUR 4.03 million), Citadele banka – LVL 1.22 million (EUR 1.74 million), SEB banka – LVL 558,744 (EUR 795,021), Latvijas Krajbanka – LVL 259,006 (EUR 368,532), DnB NORD Banka – LVL 167,466 (EUR 238,283), Nordea Bank Finland Plc's branch in Latvia – LVL 158,401 (EUR 225,384), Rietumu Banka – LVL 103,927 (EUR 147,875, GE Money Bank – LVL 79,408 (EUR 112,987), Latvijas Hipoteku un zemes banka (Latvian Mortgage and Land Bank) – LVL 55,594 (EUR 79,103), Norvik banka – LVL 25,227.5 (EUR 35,895), Aizkraukles banka – LVL 15,491 (EUR 22,042), PrivatBank – LVL 5,486 (EUR 7,806), UniCredit Bank – LVL 5,435 (EUR 7,733), Danske Bank's branch in Latvia – LVL 2,688 (EUR 3,825), Baltic International Bank – LVL 2,680 (EUR 3,813), Trasta komercbanka – LVL 2,596 (EUR 3,694), SMP Bank – LVL 2,022 (EUR 2,877), Akciju komercbanka "Baltikums" – LVL 1,364 (EUR 1,941), Regionala investiciju banka – LVL 1,274.5 (EUR 1,813), Latvijas Biznesa banka – LVL 728 (EUR 1,036), LTB Bank – LVL 500 (EUR 711) and VEF banka – LVL 500 (EUR 711).
The illegal agreement was in force from December 1, 2002, until January 7, 2011. Not all banks, however, were parties to the cartel during this entire period.
The Competition Council has determined that the amount of interbank transactions and the commission on bankcard services paid by stores were not economically justified. The commission should have decreased as the amount of bankcard payments and banks' income from these payments increased, but this never happened. Due to the cartel agreement, banks' commission on cash withdrawals or account checks via a different bank's ATMs was also higher than it should have been.
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