PRESS RELEASE

MORTGAGE INTEREST RATE COLLUSION IN THE PROVINCES OF TRENTO AND BOLZANO: THE ICA IMPOSED A 27 MILLION EURO FINE ON BANKS AND COOPERATIVES

The ICA imposed a series of fines - for a total amount of about 27 million Euros - on several Banks belonging to Federazione Cooperative Raiffeisen and Federazione Trentina della Cooperazione, for two distinct anti-competitive agreements aimed at setting a minimum mortgage interest rate among Banks in the provinces of Bolzano and Trento.

In fact, the ICA’s investigations ascertained that Federazione Cooperative Raiffeisen and 14 Casse Raiffeisen (Cassa Rurale di Bolzano, Casse Raiffeisen di Brunico, Lana, Valle Isarco, Merano, Castelrotto-Ortisei, Oltradige, Lagundo, Wipptal, Tures Aurina, Prato-Tubre, Nova Ponente-Aldino, Silandro and Cassa Centrale Raiffeisen dell’Alto Adige) realized an anti-competitive agreement infringing antitrust laws. In essence, the mentioned Banks agreed to coordinate their commercial policies, also through the exchange of sensitive information (interest rates and other economic conditions of the loans), with the aim to limit competition in the mortgage market in the province of Bolzano. The collusion was carried out for about seven years (2007-2014).

Moreover, the ICA found that between November 2013 and December 2015 another anti-competitive agreement was carried out by Federazione Trentina della Cooperazione. In fact, the latter gave a mortgage interest rate of reference to Casse Rurali Federate thus limiting competition in the related market in the province of Trento.

Therefore, the ICA imposed the following fines:

Rome, 4 March 2016