Brussels has accused eight unnamed banks of colluding in the buying and trading of eurozone government bonds at different times between 2007 to 2017.
European antitrust authorities sent a formal charge sheet outlining their concerns that certain traders at eight different banks exchanged information and co-ordinated trading strategies for euro-denominated bonds issued by eurozone member states, mainly through online chat rooms.
There are no time limits on the investigation, but if the charges are confirmed, the bloc could fine each bank up to 10 per cent of its annual worldwide turnover.
In a separate investigation, EU competition officials in December accused Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Crédit Agricole and one other unnamed bank of price rigging in the market for some types of US dollar-denominated government bonds.
