“European antitrust regulators on Monday accused some of the world’s largest banks of collusion to block competition from the credit derivatives market.

“The European Commission said it had issued the complaint against the firms, including Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, after finding evidence that they had tried to prevent exchanges from entering the credit derivatives business between 2006 and 2009.

“The European Commission, which oversees antitrust regulation, said a two-year investigation found evidence that the global banks had worked with the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, a trade body, and the data firm Markit to block new entrants in part of the derivatives market.

“In particular, the firms’ actions stopped both Deutsche Börse and the CME from gaining financial information needed to enter the market for credit-default swaps.”

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