Brussels sanctions UBS, UniCredit and Nomura. The three banks were fined a total of 371 million euros for distorting competition on the bond market

The total amount of fines imposed on these three investment banks by the European Commission for agreeing over several years with five other banking institutions to distort competition on the bond market is 371 million euros. The other five banks, including Natixis, fell through the cracks and were not sanctioned by

The facts, which range from January 2007 to November 2011, concern the buying and selling of European government bonds (EEE) on the primary and secondary markets. According to the Commission's investigation, the agreement was reached through “a group of traders” who “were in regular contact with each other, mainly in chat rooms” at Bloomberg terminals, where they exchanged “commercially sensitive information