Hungarian competition watchdog GVH has fined the local Banking Association 4 billion forints ($13.7 million) for running a database that allowed its members to share crucial business data in an unlawful way, GVH said in a statement on Tuesday. The GVH said the flow of information within the system, which ran for 12 years, represented a so-called "horizontal exchange of information", a practice against both Hungarian and European Union competition law.

It said the database allowed local banks to access secret business information, such as costs, demand or profitability, enabling members to fine-tune their business plans and strategy.

Copyright Reuters, 2016