UBS loses EU fight over Credit Suisse’s role in ‘Sterling Lads’, but fine cut sharply

The tribunal cut the amount of the fine from 83.2 million euros to 28.9 million euros

Published Wed, Jul 23, 2025 · 04:56 PM

UBS Group lost the crux of its case against European Union regulators over Credit Suisse Group’s involvement in a foreign-exchange price fixing cartel – but defeat was sweetened after judges slashed the fine by nearly two-thirds.

The EU General Court on Wednesday threw out the Swiss bank’s appeal against the February 2021 penalty, and backed the European Commission’s findings that Credit Suisse – taken over by UBS in 2023 – illegally participated in a cartel that operated on the “Sterling Lads” chatroom.

The tribunal however cut the amount of the fine from 83.2 million euros (S$125 million) to 28.9 million euros, for errors in regulators’ analysis of the alleged wrongdoing.

“The General Court confirms the participation of Credit Suisse in an agreement in the spot-trading sector but reduces the amount of the fine,” the EU tribunal ruled. “While Credit Suisse did indeed participate in the agreement, the commission failed, however, to determine correctly the proxy for the value of its sales in order to set the amount of the fine.”

Wednesday’s decision can be appealed to the bloc’s highest court, the European Court of Justice. UBS declined to comment.

The EU executive’s 2021 decision hit out at HSBC Holdings, Credit Suisse, Barclays, and Royal Bank of Scotland Group for their alleged role in swapping sensitive information and trading plans that allowed them to make informed decisions to buy or sell currencies. Penalties for the alleged abuse amounted to 344 million euros for all banks. UBS was spared at the time for having revealed the existence of the cartel.

Over more than a decade, the EU embarked on broad probes into how bank traders swapped information in chat-rooms, leading to billions of euros in fines levied by the Brussels regulator, at the time under the leadership of erstwhile EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager.

Her investigations followed the EU’s approval for billions of euros in government support to keep many European lenders alive during the financial crisis in the wake of the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings BLOOMBERG

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