The Competition Commission is gearing up to play hardball with banks and insurance companies, saying on Thursday that the days for talking were past and it had prioritised the financial services sector for "enforcement". "We have done a lot of engagement work in the past with a view to changing behaviour. Some have done so and others have not. We have now taken the decision to prioritise enforcement," Makgale Mohlala, manager of the cartels division, said at a Bowman Gilfillan competition law conference in Johannesburg. The commission, the powers of which will be bolstered by proposed amendments to the Competition Act, is locked in a legal battle with banks about alleged currency rigging by their traders. A global clean-up still underway of the $5-trillion-a-day foreign exchange market has netted regulators more than $10bn in fines since 2013, according to Bloomberg. In a sideswipe at banks that filed exception applications in the case, meaning they had raised technical issues, Mohl...
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