Major banks shared sensitive bonds information in online chats, CMA finds

The CMA was alerted to the alleged unlawful behaviour by Deutsche Bank, under its leniency policy, which can waive or reduce penalties in return for reporting cartel activity and assisting the watchdog. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

The UK’s competition watchdog has provisionally found that five major banks broke competition law by unlawfully exchanging sensitive information about British government bond trading in online chatrooms.

In an investigation, the Competition and Markets Authority has found that the banks – Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Canada – shared competitively sensitive information on pricing and aspects of their trading strategies through multiple one-to-one online chats.