ConCourt hears of ‘systematic collusion’ by banks to manipulate rand
The Competition Tribunal's senior legal counsel has outlined five key strategies apparently used by banks to manipulate the rand.
The Constitutional Court on Tuesday heard the Tribunal's application to overturn a ruling that cleared most of the banks of manipulating the currency.
Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi has argued that the accused institutions coordinated trades, withheld or reversed trades, influenced the currency fix, placed fake bids, and shared sensitive market information.
READ: Standard Bank, Nedbank deny manipulating the rand
Ngcukaitobi says the actions breached the Competition Act, amounting to market division and anti-competitive conduct.
He says the conduct shows systematic collusion among local banks.
" The allegation is that what the banks were doing they were coordinating trading in order to control the rate by putting what is called the fake bids.
ALSO READ: CompCom to approach apex court on currency manipulation
"It did involve our local banks. There was an information overload among those competitors at all stages of the trading. This is a form of currency manipulation."
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