Brussels - The European Union's (EU's) competition watchdog
says it is investigating the practices of some the world's biggest banks as
well as a financial data firm and a clearing house in the market for credit
default swaps.
The European Commission says it is probing whether the 16
banks active in the CDS market - including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and
JP Morgan - colluded with Markit to give important data on their activities
only to that firm.
In a second case, it is also investigating whether nine of
those banks received preferential treatment from ICE Clear Europe, the biggest
CDS clearing house in the EU.
The commission says such agreements could have kept other
clearing houses from entering the market.