Global regulators could hit SA banks as rigging probe hots up
The Competition Commission's investigation into alleged collusion between currency traders could trigger a series of penalties from international regulators for the local banks implicated
"If I were a local bank with operations in the US I'd be really scared about what the US authorities are going to do to me because they're based there," said Treasury deputy director-general Ismail Momoniat. Makgale Mohlale, manager of the cartels division at the Competition Commission, said that as the investigation was continuing there was a "likelihood that outside regulators could move against local banks". Depending on the severity of any such possible fines, the stability of South Africa's banking system could be affected, said Momoniat. Three banks - Investec, Absa and Standard Bank - are implicated, and, due to their systemic importance, could spark a crisis. There is no way of measuring the full impact as no one knows what the ramifications of the deals are. "The issue here is you've got lots of international banks and they're all systemically important financial institutions. If the problem is a really big one, we have to determine whether it's big for South African banks,...
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