In an unprecedented enforcement action, the Romanian Competition Council has penalized ten major banking institutions with a massive combined fine of 3.73 billion lei, equivalent to approximately 710 million euros. The antitrust authority found that the banks actively breached both national Competition Law and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union by colluding during the critical ROBOR rate-setting process.
The investigation, which began in late 2022, revealed that the participating financial institutions subverted market forces by swapping confidential, strategically sensitive pricing information. Instead of submitting their firm quotations independently as required by law, the banks coordinated their positions based on the expected behaviors and figures of their competitors. This lack of independence proved particularly problematic for three-month, six-month, and twelve-month maturities, where actual transaction volumes are typically low, making the benchmark highly vulnerable to artificial manipulation. Because ROBOR serves as the primary benchmark for corporate loans, public entity financing, and legacy consumer mortgages issued before 2019, even a minor fraction-of-a-percentage-point distortion yields vast financial consequences for regular borrowers.
The regulatory body emphasized that this enforcement action targeted individual anti-competitive behavior rather than sector-wide banking policies or regulations. Bogdan Chirițoiu, President of the Competition Council, noted that the unanimous decision by the council’s plenum followed extensive public debate that had unfortunately generated market confusion. He clarified that while transaction transparency is generally positive, firm quotations during the fixing process must remain strictly confidential to safeguard market integrity, a principle mirrored in previous landmark banking cartel cases across the European Union and the United States.
Every major player in the Romanian banking sector faces significant financial penalties under the ruling. Banca Transilvania bears the highest individual burden, facing a fine of 875.74 million lei (166.8 million euros), alongside an additional 85.03 million lei (16.2 million euros) for the past conduct of its acquired entity, OTP Bank România. Other heavily sanctioned institutions include Banca Comercială Română at 577.36 million lei (110 million euros), Raiffeisen Bank România at 442.49 million lei (84.3 million euros), and UniCredit Bank at 431.03 million lei (82.1 million euros). BRD-Groupe Société Générale was fined 412.47 million lei (78.6 million euros), followed closely by ING Bank’s Bucharest branch at 405.91 million lei,(77.3 million euros) and CEC Bank at 332.98 million lei (63.4 million euros). The remaining penalties were distributed among Exim Banca Românească (18.4 million euros), Libra Internet Bank (8.7 million euros), and Banca Comercială Intesa Sanpaolo România (5.4 million euros).
To maintain broader economic stability and prevent immediate market disruption, the antitrust authority is allowing the banks a sixty-day window from the receipt of the reasoned decision to submit formal compliance action plans. These plans must outline concrete measures to eliminate the identified anti-competitive behaviors and will require formal approval from the Competition Council to grant the lenders legal certainty moving forward.
The enforcement order is immediately applicable, meaning the banks must prepare for the financial layout regardless of their next legal steps. The National Agency for Fiscal Administration will manage the collection of the fines, which are directed entirely into the state budget. The targeted financial institutions retain the right to challenge the Competition Council’s decision before the Court of Appeal, provided they file their legal appeals within thirty days of being formally notified of the reasoning.
