French authority fines 11 banks $504 mn

BNP Paribas SA, Groupe Credit Agricole, BPCE SA and eight other banks were a fined a total of ¤384.9 million after France’s competition regulator said an electronic check-processing program improperly levied fee on consumers.

BPCE, France’s second-largest bank by branches, was fined ¤90.9 million, the largest penalty. Credit Agricole was fined ¤82.9 million, the Autorite de la Concurrence said in a statement.

The banks set a 4.3 euro-cent charge to exchange check images between lenders, one of the nine interbank charges introduced when they switched to electronic processing. The check image fee was charged from January 2002 to July 2007 and was lifted only “under the pressure of the ongoing proceedings,” the regulator said.

“The digitalizing of the clearing system has allowed banks to make substantial savings,” the regulator said in its statement. “Neither the firms, nor the consumer have been able to take full profit from this economic progress.”

BNP, France’s largest bank, was fined ¤63 million and Societe Generale SA ¤53 million. The Bank of France, which supervises French banks, was fined ¤350,000.

Christelle Maldague, a spokeswoman for Paris-based BNP, said the check-processing program was “set up in full transparency and in full visibility of the banking authorities.”