HSBC (HSBA.L) has won an appeal against a decision by European antitrust regulators to fine Europe’s second-largest bank 33.6 million euros ($36 million) over its role in a cartel to manipulate benchmark Euribor interest rates in 2007.
However, the European Court of Justice, Europe’s highest court, said on Thursday that it had dismissed the bank’s challenge against a ruling that found it had participated in a cartel.
“The Court of Justice upholds the annulment of the 33.6 million euro fine imposed on the HSBC Group,” the Luxembourg-based EU Court of Justice (CJEU) said, but added that it “dismisses the HSBC companies’ action challenging the finding that it participated in the cartel at issue”.
An HSBC spokesperson declined to comment.
The European Commission, the bloc’s executive body, ruled in 2016 that HSBC and six other banks had tried to distort Euribor (euro interbank offered rate), a benchmark for rates on financial products, fining the lender 33.6 million euros.
