11 French Banks Fined
Published / Last Updated on 20/09/2010
by Ashley Clark, Director
A cartel of 11 French Banks has been fined €385m for fixing bank fees for cheques.
The 11 banks are Banque de France, Banque Postale, BNP Paribas, BPCE, Confederation Nationale du Credit Mutual, Credit Agricole, Credit du Nord, CIC, HSBC, LCL and Societe Generale.
The French competition authority, L’ Autorite de la Concurrence, noted that banks had increased their basic banking fees when new swifter bank clearing systems were introduced much on the same way as in the UK where for many it now takes less than a day to clear funds as opposed the old three day.
The French Banks argued that they increased fees to make up for losses as they now retain monies on un-cleared cheques for a shorter time. We suggest and the French regulator obviously agrees that nothing has changed. Millions of euro move between all these banks everyday. If you are releasing money more quickly than you were, you are also receiving cleared money more quickly than you were.
There was obviously a pattern of fee increases that these banks have fallen foul of. That said, a €385m fine between 11 banks is €35m each and we suggest less than a one month’s profit for most of them.
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