South Africa: JPMorgan and HSBC face fines in rand-rigging probe

South Africa’s antitrust investigators urged that a dozen banks be fined for colluding and manipulating trades in the rand, becoming potentially the latest in a string of penalties handed to lenders around the world for rigging currencies.

The Competition Commission identified lenders including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, HSBC Holdings, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse Group, HSBC Holdings, JPMorgan Chase and Nomura Holdings as among those that participated in price fixing and market allocation in the trading of foreign currency pairs involving the rand since at least 2007. It referred the case to an antitrust tribunal, concluding an investigation that began in 2015.

The outcome of the probe comes as President Jacob Zuma and his governing African National Congress step up pressure to break the dominance of the country’s four largest lenders and force them to lend more to black clients.

Mr Zuma and the banks are also locked in a stand-off after the lenders closed the accounts of companies tied to his friends, the Gupta family, who are accused of using their relationship with him to influence government appointments and contracts.

Full Content: Business Times

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