Slovakia's Supreme Court upheld a rougly €3.2 million fine imposed by the country's Antimonopoly Office on Ceskoslovenská obchodná banka a.s. over its participation in a cartel agreement targeting Czech foreign currency trader AKCENTA CZ, a.s., E15 reported Dec. 5 after news agency CTK.

The Supreme Court's decision revoked the earlier ruling of the Bratislava Regional Court, which reduced the fine for KBC Group NV's Slovak unit to €1.5 million.

Fines imposed by the competition watchdog on Slovenska Sporitelna a.s. and Všeobecná úverová banka a.s. for their role in the cartel agreement were already confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2013.

The competition authority imposed the total of €10.19 million worth of fines on the three banks in 2009 after it established that the lenders closed Akcenta's bank accounts in 2007 in an attempt to push the currency trader out of the Slovak market, the news report noted.