Lombard Club

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The Lombard Club was loud decision of the EU Commission , an interest rate cartel Austrian banks. It existed from the 1950s until just before the turn of the century.

According to the assessment of the Commission, agreements among Austrian banks - above all on conditions and fees - [...] had a long tradition in Austria and were based in part on a legal basis until the 1980s (5) , although at the latest with the EEA -Accession not applicable. The banks affected - [involved] were almost all credit institutions from all major sectors ; [coordinated] their behavior with regard to all essential competition parameters .

In 2002, key banks were convicted by the Commission.

Course of events

The core of the cartel has been monthly meetings at the Hotel Bristol in Vienna since the 1950s. The name Lombard Club alluded to Lombard Street in London as the former main street of the bank headquarters. Investigations began because the then head of the Kontrollbank , Gerhard Praschak , sent incriminating documents to various media before his suicide in April 1997. June 1998, at the instigation of the EU Commission, house searches were carried out at suspicious institutes. In September 1999 the procedure was opened.

The judgment was issued on June 11, 2002.

judgment

The judgment in Case COMP / 36.571 / D-1 - Austrian Banks ("Lombard Club") , signed by Mario Monti , was addressed to:

  1. Bank Austria
  2. First Bank
  3. Raiffeisen Central Bank
  4. BAWAG
  5. PSK
  6. VBAG
  7. Lower Austria HYPO
  8. RLB Lower Austria-Vienna

In its judgment, the Commission assumed that there had been no discussion rounds since the time of the inspections. However, she assessed the violations that had taken place as deliberate and particularly serious . They imposed fines between 1.52 million euros and 37.69 million euros, a total of around 125 million euros.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f DECISION OF THE COMMISSION of June 11, 2002 in proceedings under Article 81 of the EC Treaty in Case COMP / 36.571 / D-1 - Austrian Banks (“Lombard Club”) (announced under file number K ( 2002) 2091) (PDF; 1.2 MB)
  2. ↑ Der Standard, December 14, 2006, Knowledge: The Lombard Club as a fixed ritual