EU court cuts Credit Suisse fine for foreign exchange cartel

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union's General Court substantially reduced a fine imposed on Credit Suisse to 28.9 million euros ($33.92 million) from 83.2 million euros on Wednesday, over its participation in a foreign exchange trading cartel.

The court ruled that Credit Suisse had participated in the cartel, but the European Commission had not correctly determined the amount of the fine.

"The applicants have rightly claimed that certain data used by the Commission in determining the proxy for the value of Credit Suisse's sales were less complete and reliable than those proposed for that purpose by Credit Suisse during the administrative procedure," the court said in a statement.

UBS, which merged with Credit Suisse in 2024, declined to comment.

The case stemmed from a professional online chatroom called "Sterling Lads" where certain traders exchanged sensitive information, allowing them to make decisions on buying and selling G10 currencies - the world's most liquid and traded currencies - and the timing of those trades.

EU antitrust regulators fined Credit Suisse in 2021 over the cartel, as well as Barclays, HSBC and NatWest. Credit Suisse was at the time handed the second-largest fine, after HSBC.

($1 = 0.8519 euros)

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Makini Brice;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)