Competition Commission ‘studying’ dismissal of rand manipulation case
The Competition Appeals Court has dismissed the Competition Commission's rand manipulation case against major South African and foreign banks for colluding and conspiring to manipulate the rand to their own benefit.
The court's judgement on an eight-year-long case against the banks was delivered on Monday.
The judgment sets aside the decision of the Competition Tribunal which orders all accused banks to respond to all the charges placed against them by the Commission for the manipulation of the rand/dollar.
The case was dismissed against all SA banks appealing except Investec, which opted not to appeal.
The court argued that the commission failed to provide enough evidence to support its case and prove anti competitive behavior.
READ FULL JUDGEMENT BELOW
Rand Manipulation 1 by Anastasi Mokgobu on Scribd
Last year, UK multinational Standard Chartered agreed to settle the case and pay a fine of R42.7 million after the currency collusion report by the commission has charged 28 banks with involvement in a scheme to manipulate the rand-US dollar exchange rate between 2007 and 2013.
Standard Bank, Absa, Investec, Citibank, First Rand Bank, Barclays, Merrill Lynch, HSBC, Nedbank, and Standard Chartered are some of the banks listed.
The Competition Commission said Standard Chartered admitted liability in the case and agreed to pay a fine of almost R43 million.
Standard Bank and Nedbank have denied involvement in the anti-competitive behaviour of fixing the USD/ZAR exchange rate or manipulating the rand's value.
The Competition Commission said it is studying the judgment.
“The Commission is still studying the judgement and will in due course communicate its next course of action,” said spokesperson Siyabulela Makunga.
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