The Competition Council is preparing to finalize in June or July one of the most important investigations ever opened in Romania’s banking market. Information obtained by NewsCenter.ro from both sides – the representatives of the banking institutions and the competition authorities – indicates that the ten banks involved could be sanctioned with at least 0.5% of their 2025 turnover. The fines could therefore reach hundreds of millions of euros. The final decision is expected to be announced in June. The National Bank of Romania (BNR) is reportedly pressuring authorities not to sanction the banks.
On Monday, the plenary of the Competition Council held its final hearing with representatives of Romanian banks in the antitrust investigation in which financial institutions are suspected of “colluding in the setting of ROBOR.” In essence, ten banks are suspected of having agreed to keep ROBOR at an artificially high level so that loan installments would remain higher. The alleged conduct is believed to have taken place before 2019, when ROBOR was replaced by IRCC as the benchmark used in loan calculations.
The ten banks participating in the ROBOR fixing mechanism were:
- Banca Comercială Română (BCR)
- BRD Groupe Société Générale
- Raiffeisen Bank
- ING Bank
- UniCredit Bank
- CEC Bank
- Alpha Bank (later acquired by UniCredit Bank)
- Exim Banca Românească
- OTP Bank (later acquired by Banca Transilvania)
- First Bank (later acquired by Intesa Sanpaolo)
The ROBOR investigation is already being compared within the market to other major recent Competition Council cases, including the investigation into the seed market, where the authority ultimately moved toward sanctioning the companies involved.
“The decision whether to impose sanctions or not is pending”
According to information obtained by NewsCenter.ro from banking-sector sources, the final decision is expected to be announced in the coming period, most likely in June or July.
“From the information we have received, it appears that the Competition Council is leaning toward imposing a fine in this investigation as well. The official decision has not yet been issued, but that is probably the direction it will take. The sanction will likely be announced next month, in June or early July,”
a source involved in the investigation on behalf of one of the banks under scrutiny told NewsCenter.ro.
Representatives of the Competition Council confirmed to NewsCenter.ro that the investigation is in its final stage but declined to specify whether the institution intends to sanction the banks or close the case without penalties.
“Yes, the investigation will be finalized in June,”
a representative of the authority stated. It was also confirmed that the case will be concluded before the expiration of Bogdan Chirițoiu’s mandate as president of the institution. Chirițoiu is currently serving his third term.
However, another representative of the authority suggested that the institution may follow the same approach as in other recent investigations and decide to impose sanctions.
“The decision whether to sanction or not is currently under deliberation,”
the official told NewsCenter.ro.
Banks were expecting fines until BNR intervened
The Competition Council’s leadership declined to say whether any of the banks had admitted wrongdoing.
However, according to information obtained by NewsCenter.ro, the National Bank of Romania has recently exerted pressure to prevent sanctions from being imposed. Several meetings reportedly took place this month between BNR’s leadership and the management of the Competition Council.
“In the ROBOR case, it is argued that the conduct was established by BNR itself, which would exclude the banks’ responsibility,”
a source with access to the investigation said.
The allegations: how banks allegedly maintained higher rates
The investigation concerns the ten banks involved in setting the ROBOR benchmark and examines possible agreements to keep the rate at the highest possible level during the fixing procedure. The inquiry was launched in 2022 after the Competition Council carried out unannounced inspections at the headquarters of the financial institutions involved in the ROBOR-setting mechanism.
According to official information provided by the Competition Council:
“The investigation examines activity on the interbank money market both during the fixing procedure and during the 15-minute period following the establishment of the index, when banks conduct operations involving the attraction and placement of interbank deposits.”
The authority suspects that coordinated conduct among banks may have artificially influenced the ROBOR rate, which for many years served as the benchmark for variable-interest loans granted to households and companies.
Before the introduction of IRCC in 2019, ROBOR was the primary indicator used to calculate loan installments for millions of Romanians with mortgage or consumer loans denominated in lei. The Competition Council’s investigation also covers variable-rate corporate loans across all sectors of the economy, meaning that the alleged anti-competitive practice may have affected the entire Romanian economy.
ROBOR is calculated daily based on quotations submitted by participating banks to BNR, and any artificial increase in the index could have generated substantial additional costs for borrowers.
Fines ranging from 0.5% to 10% of annual turnover
If the Competition Council’s suspicions are confirmed, the banks under investigation face fines of up to 10% of turnover under Romanian competition law.
However, according to information obtained by NewsCenter.ro, the authority is expected to opt for penalties of around 0.5% of each bank’s 2025 turnover, a threshold considered the minimum level in such cases under Competition Law No. 21/1996.
Applying a 0.5% sanction to the estimated 2025 operating revenues of the main banks under investigation would result in total fines exceeding 180 million lei.
Approximate calculations for each bank are as follows:
- Banca Comercială Română: operating revenues of 6.53 billion lei → estimated fine of 32.6 million lei;
- Banca Transilvania: estimated revenues of 9.5 billion lei → estimated fine of 47.5 million lei (included because it acquired Bancpost/OTP);
- UniCredit Bank: revenues of approximately 4.9 billion lei → estimated fine of 24.5 million lei;
- ING Bank: revenues exceeding 4 billion lei → estimated fine of 20 million lei;
- Raiffeisen Bank: estimated revenues of 3.5 billion lei → estimated fine of 17.5 million lei;
- BRD Groupe Société Générale: estimated revenues of 4.3 billion lei → estimated fine of 21.5 million lei;
- CEC Bank: estimated operating revenues of 3.2–3.4 billion lei → estimated fine of at least 16 million lei;
- Intesa Sanpaolo (which acquired First Bank): estimated revenues between 650 and 800 million lei → estimated fine of at least 3.7 million lei.
For these institutions alone, a 0.5% sanction would amount to approximately 183 million lei, or more than €35 million.
The maximum level
At a sanction level of 1%, the total fines would double to around 360 million lei. At the legal maximum of 10%, total sanctions for the banking system under investigation could theoretically exceed 3 billion lei.
The practical conclusion is that even a relatively small percentage-based penalty could become one of the largest fines ever imposed by the Competition Council in the financial and banking sector.
It should be recalled that the Competition Council previously investigated banks in a separate ROBOR manipulation case involving conduct dating back to 2008. That investigation was eventually closed, and the banks were effectively cleared of wrongdoing.
However, since 2023, banks have also been under investigation in another case involving the Central Payment Incidents Register. The Competition Council’s leadership has not provided any updates on that inquiry for nearly three years.
