ECB erred in Crédit Agricole fine, EU court rules

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank was right to fine Crdit Agricole for breaching rules on how certain capital items should be classified but gave inadequate reasons for its decision, Europe’s second-highest court ruled on Wednesday.

“The Court finds that the applicants have not demonstrated that the ECB’s decisions were unlawful,” the General Court said it said in a statement in a case brought by Crdit Agricole and several subsidiaries.

“However, the Court has annulled the contested decisions in so far as they imposed pecuniary penalties of 4,300,000 euros ($4.85 million), 300,000 euros and 200,000 euros, respectively, on the basis that inadequate reasons were given for those decisions.”

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi, editing by Louise Heavens)