Europe’s second highest court has annulled fines imposed by the European Central Bank on Crédit Agricole, on the basis that it did not give a good enough reason for the dishing out the penalties in the first place, even though it was entitled to do so.

Three divisions of Crédit Agricole were given a collective €4.8m in fines for having “classified capital instruments as Common Equity Tier 1 (‘CET 1’) instruments” without first obtaining the approval of regulators.