Citibank N.A. will be paying $5.3 million for its alleged participation in an FX trading cartel.
A regulatory body in South Africa, the Competition Commission, has announced a $5.3 million settlement with Citibank N.A. for the bank’s alleged role in a foreign exchange FX trading cartel
Competition Commission report that they have “found that from at least 2007, Citibank N.A. and its competitors had a general agreement to collude on prices for bids, offers and bid-offer spreads for the spot trades in relation to currency trading involving US Dollar / Rand currency pair.”
In addition, the Competition Commission alleges that “Citibank N.A. and its competitors manipulated the price of bids and offers through agreements to refrain from trading and creating fictitious bids and offers at particular times,” officials say.
The settlement with Citibank N.A. specifies that the bank will pay “an administrative penalty of 69,500,860 in South African Rands (ZAR)” or $5,282,535.87 (at the current rate of 1 USD = 13.1567 ZAR), officials say. “This figure does not exceed 10 percent of Citibank N.A.’s annual turnover in the Republic of South Africa. Citibank N.A. undertook to cooperate with the Commission and avail witnesses to assist the prosecution of the other banks that colluded in this matter.”
“This settlement was done to encourage speedy settlement and full disclosure to strengthen the evidence for prosecution of the other banks,” according to a statement from Tembinkosi Bonakele, a commissioner with the Pretoria-based authority.
The other alleged participants in the collusion have been referred to the Competition Tribunal, an arm of the commission.
Bloomberg is reporting that Citi officials will be offering witnesses to facilitate the prosecution of the cases against others institutions.
Citi officials did not respond to a request for comment.
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