Standard Bank denied access to forex case records
The Competition Tribunal rules the bank is not entitled to records in the collusion probe
Standard Bank’s efforts to obtain records of the Competition Commission’s probe into collusion among currency traders at 18 banks were thwarted on Monday after the Competition Tribunal ruled it was not entitled to such records. Given "the length of the record, the extent of the confidential information in it and the burden it would place on the commission in preparing it, a reasonable time for production would be at the same time as discovery is made in the [foreign exchange] case", the tribunal said in a statement. The tribunal, which heard the case on September 18, said Standard Bank had provided no reasons why it should receive a copy of the commission’s record of investigation before pleadings in the case had closed. This will come as a blow to Standard Bank, which was seeking the evidence on which the commission relied — in alleging that two of the bank’s currency traders had colluded with peers at rival banks to fix prices on rand-to-dollar trades — before filing its answering...
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