Romania’s Competition Council has issued unprecedented penalties against the country’s banking sector, imposing fines on ten major lenders over allegations of manipulating the ROBOR interbank interest rate. The total sanctions amount to 3.73 billion lei, roughly 710 million euros, according to Digi24 TV.
Authorities concluded that the banks engaged in coordinated conduct that influenced the formation of ROBOR, breaching both Romanian competition law and EU rules under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Regulators said the institutions exchanged sensitive and strategic information in order to affect the benchmark rate used across the financial system.
The list of sanctioned institutions includes Banca Comercială Română, BRD-Groupe Société Générale, Banca Transilvania, ING Bank Romania, Raiffeisen Bank Romania, Exim Banca Românească, CEC Bank, UniCredit Bank Romania, among others. Individual penalties vary significantly, ranging from 28.1 million lei to as much as 875.74 million lei.
The Competition Council said the banks must submit within 60 days detailed compliance plans aimed at ending the anti-competitive practices, with those measures requiring formal approval from the regulator. The decision may be challenged in court within 30 days at the Court of Appeal, although the fines remain enforceable and the collected funds will be transferred to the state budget.
