Romania's record-breaking fines hit banking stocks hard as 10 banks are fined $819 million for manipulating interest rates

Glonghui June 8th｜Romanian interbank interest rate probe results in record fines, the country’s largest bank suffers a share price plunge. Following accusations by competition regulators that several banks colluded to set money market rates, the share price of Romania's largest bank fell sharply. On Monday in the Bucharest stock market, Banca Transilvania, which was hit with the largest fine by the competition authorities, fell by 2.6%, while BRD-Groupe Société Générale dropped by 3.6%. According to a statement released on Sunday, the Romanian Competition Council fined 10 banks a total of 3.73 billion lei (approximately $819 million) for exchanging confidential information and coordinating their quotes in setting the Romanian Interbank Offer Rate (Robor). Banca Transilvania and most of the other penalized banks plan to appeal in court. Others fined include Raiffeisen Bank International, Erste Group, UniCredit Bank, ING, the Romanian branches of Intesa Sanpaolo, as well as Libra Internet Bank, the state-owned EximBank, and CEC Bank.