Antitrust and Financial Services in the EU: Commitments in Credit Default Swaps (CDS)

Abstract

Abstract Following the financial crisis, far-reaching regulation of financial services was introduced to achieve sustainable growth and systemic stability. Whereas regulation tackles broad structural market failures, competition policy addresses harmful behaviour of individual market participants. The systemic risks evidenced in the crisis therefore merit specific additional attention to market failures and imperfect competition in financial services, to address issues such as market power, asymmetric information and entry barriers. This article examines a recent example of antitrust enforcement in financial services, focusing on the rationale and adequacy of using antitrust commitments in this sector, addressing the application of this rationale to the recently adopted Commission Decisions in the Credit Default Swaps (CDS) case. It will place the CDS case in context of antitrust enforcement and regulation in financial services, in particular derivatives, and examine the value added of the CDS commitments and the necessity for antitrust enforcement going forward.