Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Face EU Antitrust Probe of CDS Market

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), JPMorgan & Co. and other investment banks face a European Union antitrust probe into credit-default swaps for companies and sovereign debt, regulators said.

The European Commission said it opened two antitrust investigations into the CDS market. It will check whether 16 bank dealers colluded by giving market information to Markit, a financial information provider, the commission said today in a statement.

The regulator also will examine whether nine of those dealers struck deals with ICE Clear Europe, a clearing house for derivatives, that block other clearing houses from entering the market and give CDS players “no real choice where to clear their transactions,” the commission said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Aoife White in Brussels at awhite62@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net.

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Lloyd Blankfein-James Dimon

Lloyd Blankfein (left), CEO of Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. and James Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan & Co. (right). Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Lloyd Blankfein (left), CEO of Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. and James Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan & Co. (right). Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

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April 29 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other investment banks face a European Union antitrust probe into credit-default swaps for companies and sovereign debt. The European Commission said it will check whether 16 bank dealers colluded by giving market information to financial information provider Markit and also examine whether nine of the firms struck deals with ICE Clear Europe. Bloomberg's Aoife White talks about the probe with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg)