Competition Commission denies dropping rand-rigging charges
The Competition Commission says it is persisting with charges against all the banks named in its rand-rigging probe, after Standard Bank said allegations would be withdrawn against some of the institutions. Standard Bank general counsel Ian Sinton said in an e-mailed response to questions on Tuesday that the antitrust regulator would revoke its complaint against some lenders and may accuse other banks of collusion and manipulation of currency trades instead. Competition Commissioner Thembinkosi Bonakele said Standard Bank had misunderstood what happened at a closed hearing on Friday. "There’s no truth at all that we may withdraw any allegations against any banks," Bonakele said in an interview on Johannesburg-based Radio 702. "It’s an error. It doesn’t mean we’ll never press any new charges against any other banks." Fourteen banking entities, including HSBC, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse and JPMorgan Chase, were named by the commission in February as having been allegedly involved in i...
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