Lawyers pressure EU to release Euribor rate-rigging report

The European Commission has come under pressure from lawyers to release further details of a €1.8 billion fine paid by eight major banks over the Euribor rate-rigging scandal two years ago.

The top EU body has failed to publish a promised report on the findings of the investigation which led to institutions like the Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays agreeing to major fines in December 2013.

The commission says it cannot publish the report until an ongoing investigation into Crédit Agricole, HSBC and JP Morgan has also been concluded.

Anthony Maton, London managing partner at global law firm Hausfeld, told The Times: “Shareholders, customers, employees and the general public have the right to know just what these banks did when they manipulated Libor and Euribor. So far there has been no disclosure, no explanation and no justification for multimillion-euro fines.

“It’s now been almost two years since the commission handed out the fines against these banks. They said at the time that details of the cases would be published ‘shortly’. That was a long time ago. The authorities are failing on a basic principle of justice — that it must be open to scrutiny.”

A spokesperson for the commission’s competition division told the newspaper: “The investigation concerning Crédit Agricole, HSBC and JP Morgan is ongoing.

“The publication of the non-confidential version of the commission’s December 2013 decision cannot yet take place.

“The commission can only proceed with the publication of the non-confidential version when the procedure is concluded also for these parties.”