Markit and ISDA offer concessions to settle EU antitrust charges

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Data firm Markit and trade body ISDA have offered concessions to settle EU antitrust charges and avoid possible fines, the European Commission said on Thursday. The competition watchdog charged two firms and 13 banks three years ago with blocking Deutsche Boerse from the lucrative credit derivatives market in 2007 and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in 2008. The commission withdrew the banks from the case in December last year due to insufficient evidence, but Markit and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), which represents firms involved in the derivatives market, remained in its sights. ISDA has offered to license its rights to the final price of credit derivatives on fair and reasonable terms and is prepared to use arbitration to resolve the disagreements. Its CEO, rather than its board of directors, will now decide on the final licensing price resulting from auctions held to set the settlement price for credit default swaps. Markit has agreed to license its iTraxx and CDX indices on fair and reasonable terms, and to limit the influence of banks on its advisory committees. Third parties have a month to submit comments before the Commission decides whether to accept the two offers. The case is one of several in the financial industry that have so far resulted in billion-euro fines. (Editing by Julia Fioretti and Ed Osmond)