Citibank on Monday agreed to pay a R69.5 million administrative penalty to the Competition Commission after the bank was implicated in the forex trading cartel.
This comes after the Commission last week referred a collusion case to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution against 17 banks, including three South African banks.
The Commission seeks an order from the Tribunal declaring that the banks are liable for the payment of an administrative penalty equal to 10 percent of their annual turnover
However, this R69,500,860 figure does not exceed 10 percent of Citibank N.A.’s annual turnover in South Africa.
Citibank N.A. undertook to cooperate with the Commission and avail witnesses to assist the prosecution of the other banks that colluded in this matter.
“This settlement was done to encourage speedy settlement and full disclosure to strengthen the evidence for prosecution of the other banks,” Commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele said in a statement.
The Commission found that from at least 2007, Citibank N.A. and its competitors had a general agreement to collude on prices for bids, offers and bid-offer spreads for the spot trades in relation to currency trading involving US Dollar/Rand currency pair.
The Commission also found that Citibank N.A. and its competitors manipulated the price of bids and offers through agreements to refrain from trading and creating fictitious bids and offers at particular times.
Other implicated banks are: Bank of America Merrill Lynch International Limited, BNP Paribas, JP Morgan Chase and Co, JP Morgan Chase Bank N.A, Investec Ltd, Standard New York Securities Inc., HSBC Bank Plc, Standard Chartered Bank, Credit Suisse Group; Standard Bank of South Africa Ltd, Commerzbank AG; Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, Nomura International Plc., Macquarie Bank Limited, Citibank N.A., ABSA Bank Limited (ABSA), Barclays Capital Inc, Barclays Bank plc.
– African News Agency (ANA)
