Romania’s competition body to issue reasoning for record bank fines within four months

The Competition Council will draft the reasoning for the record EUR 710 million slapped on the country’s largest bank for alleged ROBOR collusion within the legal term of four months, competition body’s president Bogdan Chiritoiu told Digi24 after being questioned about an intermediary report leaked to the media outlet. The ruling becomes enforceable only after the document is handed over to the banks, he added – implying that the recent announcement was only a preliminary notification.

The report leaked to Digi24 was drafted by a department of the Competition Council, and it was only one of the sources used for the final decision – fiercely criticised by the banks involved and questioned by the National Bank of Romania (BNR).

"We will finish in a month, then we will have to reach a version that can be made public, without business secrets, and usually this process takes time," said Chirițoiu, who announced that "somewhere in early autumn we will have the decision on the Council's website."

However, he said that the report on the decision to fine the banks had already been sent to the European Commission “to validate the legislation that was applied.”

"You know that the European Commission supervises all our reports, so this report was sent to the Commission. It was accepted by the Commission. The Commission must ensure that we apply the treaty correctly and that we give the sanctions correctly. They are given on the basis of the European treaty [TFEU]," concluded Chirițoiu.

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