INVESTIGATION INTO ABI’S CIRCULAR ON THE IUS VARIANDI NOW COMPLETED
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
BANKS: ANTITRUST AUTHORITY SAYS ABI’S CIRCULAR ON IUS VARIANDI VIOLATED COMPETITION RULES
The Association has definitively revoked the circular the Authority had already suspended and has disbanded specific working groups. In the future, it will avoid setting up groups that may lead to coordination by banks
The Italian Competition Authority, at its meeting on 10 July 2007, decided that ABI’s circular of 7 August 2006 on the ius variandi constitutes an anti-competitive arrangement. However, the investigation was closed without the imposition of a penalty in the light of the initiatives spontaneously adopted by ABI during the proceedings to correct the infringement which, it must be noted, was only of very brief duration.
Specifically, the association has decided to revoke the circular definitively and to disband the ius variandi working group that had been specially set up to develop strategies regarding changes to regulations. Furthermore, ABI will make more general changes to its methods to ensure its studies of regulations do not lead to forms of coordination amongst member banks as to aspects that may impact their market strategies. ABI will inform the Authority as to the results of checks carried out to guarantee the association’s work of interpretation does not reflect positions drawn up through comparisons among a number of competing banks. The Authority will monitor those results.
The investigation into ABI began on 14 September 2006: on that occasion, the Authority used its interim powers for the first time, obliging ABI to suspend the ius variandi circular it had distributed following the changes introduced by the first Bersani decree on liberalizations.
Rome, 11 July 2007