The first corporate leniency case relating to alleged collusion in the banking sector will be heard by the Competition Tribunal on Wednesday. This comes after the Competition Commission and Citibank reached a settlement agreement on February 19 on the bank’s role in the forex trading cartel. CitiBank has agreed to pay an administrative penalty amounting to R69‚500‚860 and will most likely be off the hook in relation to the charges. The commission discovered that from 2007‚ 18 banks including Citibank‚ Standard Bank‚ Absa‚ Standard Chartered and Barclays Capital "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 the banks had manipulated the price of bids and offers through agreements to refrain from trading and creating fictitious bids and offers at particular times. CitiBank has admitted that between "September 2007 and Octobe...

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