BoC to contest competition watchdog’s €18m fine

Bank of Cyprus said it disagrees with the decision of the competition watchdog which fined the lender €18m on Monday citing abuse of dominant market position.

“The Bank disagrees with the decision of the Commission and intends to legally appeal against this decision through all available court processes,” Bank of Cyprus said in an emailed statement on Wednesday adding that it “intends to reflect this fine appropriately in its financial results for the quarter ended 31 March 2017 and does not at this stage change its financial guidance”.

On Monday, the Commission of the Protection of Competition fined Bank of Cyprus together with payment processing company JCC Payment Systems Ltd and seven other banks €31m collectively for colluding to squeeze FBME Card Services out of the market.

The affected companies were given a 30-day deadline to comply with the ruling which is related to a 2010 complained filed by the subsidiary of FBME Bank (Cyprus) Ltd, which in the meantime had its licence revoked by the Central Bank of Cyprus.

The other banks, all participants in the JCC consortium, are the defunct Laiki, which was then called Marfin Popular Bank Public Co Ltd, Hellenic Bank, USB Bank Plc, Alpha Bank Cyprus Ltd, Emporiki Bank Cyprus Ltd, National Bank of Greece (Cyprus) Ltd, and Societe Generale Cyprus Ltd.

JCC violated competition rules when it set up with its shareholders a single system for domestic interchange fees, which restricted competition in the card-issuance as well as the card payment-acceptance markets in Cyprus, according to the competition watchdog’s ruling. Of the €18m Bank of Cyprus fine, €10.8m related to its denying permission – without adequate justification – to FBME Card Services to process American Express cards.

Bank of Cyprus is scheduled to announce its first quarter earnings on May 30.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.