EU: General Court quashes ICAP fine in first Libor judgment

TP ICAP, the world’s largest interdealer broker, has been partially cleared by the Luxembourg-based General Court over allegations that it plotted with a cartel in the yen swaps markets to rig Libor, the mechanism used to set interest rates.

In 2015, and after a long-running probe into rate manipulation, the European Commission fined ICAP €14.9 million (US$17.3 million) for facilitating several cartels involved in setting benchmark interest rates in the Japanese yen.

The dispute covered a three-year period, between 2007 and 2010. But following the ruling, ICAP decided to fight the heavy penalty imposed by European antitrust authorities, as the broker dealer said that the case was based on the same allegations for which it had been fined £55 million (US$72.5 million) by the UK and US regulators in 2013.

TP ICAP had its convictions overturned by Europe’s second-highest court, on the grounds that the Commission’s decision against the interdealer broker was flawed in several aspects and was not insufficiently reasoned, the court said.

Full Content: Financial Times

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