RBS fined £28.59 million for breach of confidential information
30 Mar 2010
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which was bailed out by he UK goverment to prevent its collapse during the global economic meltdown, has agreed to pay a fine of £28.59 million after admitting that it shared loan pricing details with rival Barclays between October 2007 and February or March 2008, Britain's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said today.
The OFT said that the fine was reduced from £33.6 million after RBS's agreed to co-operate in the investigation.
The agreement follows an OFT investigation, which found that individuals in RBS's professional practices coverage team had unilaterally disclosed specific confidential future pricing information to their counterparts at Barclays Bank.
The OFT also found evidence that the information was used by Barclays in determining its own pricing.
The matter was brought to the OFT's attention by Barclays under the OFT's leniency policy, where a company which is the first to report its participation in an infringement may qualify for immunity from penalties.
The disclosures by RBS, which received the biggest bailout in the history of banking, took place in the course of a number of contacts on the fringes of social, client or industry events or through telephone conversations, said the OFT.
