EU to fine ICAP over yen cartels - Financial Times

(Adds comment from ICAP (LSE: IAP.L - news) spokesperson)

Feb 3 (Reuters) - ICAP, the world's largest interdealer broker, will be fined by the EU this week for allegedly facilitating cartels on yen-denominated inter-rate benchmarks, the Financial Times reported.

The fine is expected to be under 10 million euros ($11.34 million), although the regulator will not decide on the exact penalty until later this week, the newspaper said. (http://on.ft.com/18I660O)

The European Commission charged ICAP in June with fixing yen interest rate derivatives as part of a cartel including UBS , Deutsche Bank (Xetra: 514000 - news) , RBS (LSE: RBS.L - news) , JPMorgan (LSE: JPIU.L - news) , Citigroup (NYSE: C - news) and broker RP Martin.

Unlike this group of banks and brokers, which admitted wrongdoing in return for a reduced fine, ICAP has rejected the EU accusations and denied wrongdoing.

The FT, citing people involved in the case, said ICAP had refused to settle and had informed the European Commission that it would appeal against any fine as wrong in fact and law.

"We will be very disappointed if the European Commission chooses to pursue this case," a spokesperson for ICAP told Reuters. "The European Commission has failed to put forward any evidence to show a competition violation. We remain of the view that these allegations are without any merit and we will take all steps available to defend ourselves."

The European Commission said it had no comment on the matter. ($1 = 0.8817 euros) (Reporting by Rama Venkat Raman in Bangalore; Editing by Alison Williams and Susan Fenton)