No forex malfeasance at Standard Bank, says CEO
Standard Bank's Sim Tshabalala says internal probes have not revealed any wrongdoing.
Standard Bank South Africa's CEO, Sim Tshabalala, says the bank is not setting aside any cash for a potential Competition Tribunal fine for alleged collusion by its currency traders as internal investigations have not revealed any wrongdoing.
“We've trawled chat rooms, phone calls; we've gone through thousands of records and have not come across any [collusion]. [The traders] have been very clear that they are not guilty of any form of collusion,” Tshabalala said on Thursday after delivering the group's annual financial results.
The investigation by the Competition Commission, which sought to prosecute 18 global and local banks for collusion among their currency traders to fix prices on rand to dollar trades, related to three people, he said. “We employ 55 000 people.”
One of the traders, Jason Katz, had entered into a plea bargain with US authorities in December, which was unrelated to the period in which the Standard Bank Group employed him, Tshabalala said.
Standard Bank South Africa (SBSA) also recently released a statement denying any involvement in the collusion scandal.
“On 15 February 2017 the Competition Commission lodged five complaints with the Competition Tribunal against 18 institutions, including SBSA and Standard New York Securities, in which it alleges unlawful collusion between those institutions in the trading of US$/R. SBSA only learned of the complaints at this time and is alleged to have been implicated in one and SNYS in two, of the five complaints.”
“Standard Bank Group considers these allegations in an extremely serious light and remains committed to maintaining the highest levels of control and compliance with all relevant regulations. The allegations are confined to US$/R trading activities within SBSA and do not relate to the conduct of the Group more broadly,” it said.
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“We've trawled chat rooms, phone calls; we've gone through thousands of records and have not come across any [collusion]. [The traders] have been very clear that they are not guilty of any form of collusion,” Tshabalala said on Thursday after delivering the group's annual financial results.
The investigation by the Competition Commission, which sought to prosecute 18 global and local banks for collusion among their currency traders to fix prices on rand to dollar trades, related to three people, he said. “We employ 55 000 people.”
One of the traders, Jason Katz, had entered into a plea bargain with US authorities in December, which was unrelated to the period in which the Standard Bank Group employed him, Tshabalala said.
Standard Bank South Africa (SBSA) also recently released a statement denying any involvement in the collusion scandal.
“On 15 February 2017 the Competition Commission lodged five complaints with the Competition Tribunal against 18 institutions, including SBSA and Standard New York Securities, in which it alleges unlawful collusion between those institutions in the trading of US$/R. SBSA only learned of the complaints at this time and is alleged to have been implicated in one and SNYS in two, of the five complaints.”
“Standard Bank Group considers these allegations in an extremely serious light and remains committed to maintaining the highest levels of control and compliance with all relevant regulations. The allegations are confined to US$/R trading activities within SBSA and do not relate to the conduct of the Group more broadly,” it said.
BUSINESS DAY
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