The executive wing of the European Union, the European Commission, has opened formal proceedings against the U.S. bond rating agency (as well as axiomatic index) Standard and Poor’s.

The charges brought by the Commission are within the realm of misusing Standard and Poor’s status within the market as the single operator of international securities identification. The Commission says that S&P’s bond rating division may have broken critical European Union antitrust rules in the way it sold market data in a monopolistic market.

Standard and Poor’s required banks and financial institutions to subscribe to a feed of market identification data known as CUSIP - which assigns a unique variable to each stock and bond to ensure there is no confusion - this feed is provided in Europe exclusively by the Commission with no competition. S&P licenses this information, known as the International Securities Identification Numbers, to other market information services.

If banks and financial institutions do not subscribe the feed, Standard and Poor’s reports them to the American Bankers Association which causes financial data providers to deny access to the services, according to the European Commission’s press release.

“The opening of proceedings does not imply that the Commission has conclusive proof[, merely] that the Commission will deal with the case as a matter of priority,” the executive of the European Commission was clear to add.

The proceedings have been opened as a result of a number of complaints from within the financial services industry.

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