Bogdan Chiriţoiu: Romanian banks, suspected of the manipulation of the Robor index

There are suspicions that banks have been manipulating the index of the money market, and investigations on the matter have been launched on a national and European level, Bogdan Chiriţoiu, the president of the Competition Council said on Friday.

He added that since the two probes concern "relatively similar subjects" there have been talks between the experts of the European Commission and those of the Competition Council, as the national competition authority intends to coordinate its investigation with that of the European Commission.

Bogdan Chiriţoiu said: "We are interested in the suspicions of the European Commission ourselves. I am curious what they will get to, and I want to somehow coordinate our investigation with theirs".

The president of the Competition Council also said that the investigation concerning the Romanian banking market concerns a suspected collusion between the banks participating in the ROBOR system, to manipulate the index, in 2008. He added that the investigation on the banking market is "at a very advanced stage": "The report is still with our team, it hasn"t been sent to the European Commission".

The potential sanctions which the Romanian lenders might incur, in the event of the existence of a cartel, could be "very big", going as far as 10% of the turnover of the banks involved in anti-competitive activities, according to the president of the Competition Council.

The European Commission last week announced that several unannounced inspections were made at the offices of several European banks, which operate on the market of Euribor derivatives, due to suspicions concerning the existence of a cartel on this market, according to Reuters. The commission did not mention the banks or the countries where the inspections took place.

The investigations are looking to uncover whether the banks acted in concert to manipulate the reference rate for loans denominated in Euros.

• Chiriţoiu: We are expecting the answer of the European Commission on the investigation of the fuel market to arrive next week

On Friday, the president of the Competition Council provided some details on the investigation of the fuel market, which was supposed to be concluded this autumn. He said that the 30-day delay, which the European Commission had available to review the report sent by the Competition Council will expire this week.

"We expect to receive their point of view (ed. note: of the European Commission) next week", according to Bogdan Chiriţoiu.

The investigation of the fuel market began in 2005, but was resumed in 2009, when the team which was working on the case was replaced.