October 21, 2014 11:05 am

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“Cartels in the financial sector, whatever form they take, will not be tolerated,” said Joaquín Almunia, the European Commission's vice president in charge of competition policy.Credit John Thys/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

LONDON – The European Commission on Tuesday fined four major financial institutions 93.9 million euros, or about $120 million, over two types of activity that it deemed as cartel behavior.

In one case, the European Commission fined JPMorgan Chase €61.7 million euros for manipulating the Swiss franc Libor benchmark interest rate in an “illegal bilateral cartel” with the Royal Bank of Scotland. R.B.S., however, was granted immunity and avoided a fine of €110 million after it revealed the existence of the cartel to the commission.

“Anti-cartel enforcement is a top priority for the commission and no sector is exempt, including the financial sector,” the European Union said in a statement.

Interest-rate derivatives – such as forward rate agreements, swaps, futures and options – are financial products intended to help manage interest-rate fluctuations. In December 2013, the European Union fined several global financial institutions a combined €1.7 billion to settle charges that they colluded to fix benchmark interest rates.

JPMorgan received a 40 percent reduction in its fine for cooperating with the investigation