ROBOR is the benchmark interbank money market rate that affects the calculation of interest rates for loans to legal entities (including government entities such as local governments), as well as the calculation of interest rates for individuals who received loans prior to 2019 and did not apply to switch to the IRCC rate.
During its investigation, the agency found that the banks involved in setting ROBOR coordinated their actions by sharing confidential and strategic information, particularly related to pricing, regarding the level of ROBOR as part of the fixing process.
Thus, the Competition Council found the existence of cartelization and competition law prohibits any agreement between companies that impedes, restricts or distorts competition on the Romanian market.
Among the fined credit institutions there are also those active on the Moldovan market: Banca Comercială Română SA – fined 577.36 million Romanian lei; BRD-Groupe Société Générale SA – 412.47 million lei; Banca Transilvania S.A. – 875.74 million lei; Banca Transilvania SA (for the act committed by OTP Bank România SA) – 85.03 million lei and others.
The banks have 60 days from the date of receiving the justification of the decision on sanctions to submit plans of measures to eliminate anti-competitive practices. These plans will be approved by the Competition Council. The antimonopoly authority’s decision can be appealed to the Court of Appeal within 30 days from the date of submission of the justification, news.ro reported.
