CO.GE.BAN.-MULTIBANCA
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
Banks: Antitrust investigates anti-competitive arrangement by Pagobancomat consortium
Non-compliance procedure passed by the Bank of Italy to the Competition Authority; to be completed by 28 April.
The Italian Competition Authority, at its meeting on 15 February 2006, took charge of the non-compliance proceedings begun against CO.GE.BAN by the Bank of Italy on 22 October 2005 and deferred the completion date from 28 February to 28 April 2006.
Based on the new responsibilities stipulated in the law governing financial institutions, the Bank of Italy, on 14 February last, forwarded the documentation in the case to the Antitrust Authority.
The non-compliance charged by the Bank of Italy and now being examined by the Antitrust Authority arises from the Bank of Italy’s March 2005 ruling against CO.GE.BAN (a business association for the promotion of the use of Bancomat CO.GE.BAN services at POS terminals and whose members are banks and bank holding companies belonging to ABI) for having made an anti-competitive arrangement. In order to remove this violation, the Bank of Italy ordered the withdrawal of the 2003 instructions prohibiting participating retailers and companies managing POS terminals from installing "multi-bank" systems (which give the option of settling POS transactions through a number of banks rather than by way of a single pre-determined bank). In parallel, the ruling ordered that a multi-bank system be set up by 1 October 2005.
The non-fulfilment of the conditions imposed within the set time limit led to the starting of proceedings which are now the responsibility of the Competition Authority.
Antitrust rules in the case of non-compliance stipulate fines of up to ten percent of turnover.
Rome, 24 February 2006