European Authorities Fine ICAP $17 Million in Libor Investigation

LONDON — European competition authorities fined the British financial firm ICAP about 14.9 million euros, or $17 million, on Wednesday, saying the firm had breached antitrust laws by facilitating attempts by several banks to rig a benchmark interest rate.

The fine against ICAP comes more than a year after the European Commission fined a group of global financial institutions a combined €1.7 billion to settle charges that they had colluded to fix benchmark interest rates, including the London interbank offered rate, or Libor.

ICAP on Wednesday called the fine “wrong both in fact and in law.”

The firm said the Europe Commission’s accusations related to activity regarding Libor as it was tied to the Japanese yen and involved actions for which it already had entered a regulatory settlement. The firm agreed to pay British and American authorities an $87 million fine related to the Libor manipulation in 2013.

“This is a regulatory matter that has already been settled,” ICAP said in a news release. “It is not a competition issue, and the E.C. has presented no evidence that ICAP facilitated a competition law violation. ICAP will be challenging this decision at appeal in the European courts.”

On Wednesday, the European Commission accused ICAP of disseminating misleading information to banks that weren’t part of a cartel of banks trying to influence the yen Libor, saying the information was veiled as “predictions” or “expectations” of where the rate would be set.

The European Commission fined UBS, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and the British broker RP Martin in December 2013 for their involvement in cartels that tried to influence the yen Libor as it related to interest rate derivative securities.

The European Commission also accused ICAP on Wednesday of using its contacts at other banks in an attempt to influence their submissions and serving as a communications channel between traders at Citigroup and at R.B.S., assisting in their anticompetitive behavior.

“Today’s decision to fine the broker ICAP sends a strong signal that assisting companies in their cartel activities has severe consequences,” Margrethe Vestager, the European commissioner responsible for competition policy, said in a news release. “It marks the successful completion of our antitrust investigation in the yen interest rate derivatives sector – but not the end to our efforts to fight anti-competitive practices in financial markets.”

The European Commission said that its investigation found that ICAP helped facilitate six different cartels that tried to influence the yen Libor from 2007 to 2010.

Three former ICAP brokers are facing separate criminal charges in London that they conspired to manipulate Libor as it related to the yen and are expected to go to trial later this year.