​The Competition Council has collected a large amount of data during the investigation of possible agreements between 10 banks to fix the ROBOR interest rate at the highest possible level of more than half of the investigative staff involved in the process, Bohdan Chiritsoyu, the president of the Competition Council, said on Thursday.

• “In the ROBOR investigation, we collected a large amount of data. We were sent 9 teams, 60 people. Our total staff in all sectors is 80 people. So more than half of the investigative staff participated in this data collection process in the investigation. Of course, only one team is dealing with the case.” said Bohdan Chiritsa on Thursday.

When will the investigation be completed?

• “If we are going to impose fines, it could happen at the end of this year or, most likely, at the beginning of next year. Their value will be significant.” also said the president of the Competition Council.

In November 2022, the Competition Council announced the completion of unannounced inspections of 10 banks involved in setting the ROBID/ROBOR reference rates. The department notes that the inspections took place as part of an investigation into possible agreements between 10 banks to set the highest possible ROBOR interest rate in the “fixing” procedure (setting ROBOR and ROBID base rates).

“Thus, the investigation concerns the activities of the banks in the interbank money market, which were carried out during the fixing procedure, as well as within 15 minutes after the “fixing”, namely the attraction and placement of interbank deposits by participating banks in the establishment of the ROBOR/ROBID base rates throughout the country .

The potential anti-competitive practice extends to the entire territory of Romania, the ROBOR index set by 10 banks is a component of the price (interest rate) for variable interest lei loans granted to individuals before May 2, 2019 and variable interest lei loans granted to natural persons-legal entities from all economic sectors.”, This is stated in a statement sent on Thursday by the Competition Council.

• Robor is the interbank money market reference rate for deposits placed between 10 relevant credit institutions in terms of interbank money market activity in Romania, selected on the basis of performance criteria established by the National Bank of Romania (BNR).
• CRANBERRY – reference rate of the interbank money market for deposits attracted by banks from other banks participating in operations on this market. ROBID is determined within the same commit procedure as ROBOR.

The authority informs that the documents raised during the unannounced inspections are analyzed by the Romanian competition authority within the framework of special procedures.

Unannounced inspections are authorized by the Bucharest Court of Appeal and are justified by the need to obtain all the information and documents necessary to clarify the possible anti-competitive practices being analyzed. Their compilation is not a preliminary conviction of the guilt of the companies.

The Competition Law prohibits any agreements between companies and concerted practices that prevent, limit or distort competition in the Romanian market, especially those that fix purchase or sale prices or any other terms of trade.

• On Tuesday, November 1, the Competition Council launched several inspections in Bucharest at the headquarters of 10 banks involved in the calculation of ROBOR, as part of an investigation in which they suspect collusion between these banks to set the highest interest rate. possible level Sources close to the investigation informed HotNews.ro on Tuesday.
• The information was later confirmed by Bohdan Chiritsoyu, the president of the government.

ARB on the investigation of the Competition Council: Interest rate increases are registered not only in Romania, but also worldwide

The Romanian Association of Banks (ARB) reacted on Wednesday 2 November, saying it is normal for the Competition Council to be concerned about the evolution of bank interest rates as they are reflected in the rates consumers pay and how deposit rewards are paid, but saying interest rates have risen worldwide due to inflation.

• “I would even say that this is welcome (not the Consurenta investigation) and it is a signal that everything is under control and that the authorities are concerned and together with the banks are at the service of the public. There should be no doubt about this topic, especially when it affects a large part of the population,” said Bohdan Neatsu, CEO of CEC Bank and President of ARB.

According to him, the increase of interest rates – both at the level of consumers and at the level of interbank markets is registered not only in Romania, but also throughout the world, in the context of an inflationary wave.

“The money market is a free market where prices – interest rates – are formed on the basis of liquidity (the ratio of supply and demand) and include both current market conditions and the expectations of market players, and we are currently in a marked context of high volatility and multiple uncertainties.” – also noted the representative of ARB.

He continued: “The fact that signals related to price developments helped raise the offered interest rates on deposits from less than 1.5% at the beginning of the year – in the case of household deposits, to 7.5% – the market average. the level at the end of September is an illustration of how market mechanisms work and shows that banks are competing to cover the need for liquidity at the expense of attracting customer resources.