South Africa should restrict rand access for offending foreign banks
David Whitehouse, 19 December 2019
A call from South Africa’s competition regulator to be given extra-territorial powers to prosecute foreign banks whose actions affect South Africans has drawn short shrift from investors.
After an investigation into alleged collusion by 23 banks, ten of which have no presence in South Africa, to co-ordinate on spot dollar and rand prices, the Competition Commission recommended fines totalling 10% of the banks’ global revenues.
The banks involved, which include JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse, argue that the case should be dropped. The country’s Competition Tribunal in July ruled that the commission had no jurisdiction to impose the fines. Continue reading “Article: South Africa should restrict rand access for offending foreign banks”
