Brussels sanctions UBS, UniCredit and Nomura. The three banks were fined a total of €371 million for distorting competition in the bond market.

The total amount of fines imposed on these three investment banks by the European Commission for colluding for several years with five other banking institutions to distort competition on the bond market is €371 million. The other five banks, including Natixis, fell through the cracks and were not sanctioned by the European Commission.

The facts, which run from January 2007 to November 2011, concern the purchase and sale of European government bonds (OEEs) on the primary and secondary markets. According to the Commission's investigation, the cartel was reached through "a group of traders" who "were in regular contact with each other, mainly in chat rooms" of Bloomberg terminals, where they exchanged "commercially sensitive information".