The Competition Commission is said to target six major financial institutions which could be implicated in “currency manipulation”.
The commission confirmed that this probe would reveal “the forces behind” the depreciation of the currency. Competition Commission spokesman Itumeleng Lesofa said they had started the investigation but did not elaborate.
“The commission is unable to provide detailed information regarding the status of the investigation.”
What taints the recent announcement of the investigation is that the actual probe was launched by Competition Commission head Tembinkosi Bonakele in May last year already. His decision following a huge fine imposed by US and UK authorities on six major financial institutions involved in currency manipulation.
The US and UK regulators fined the six banks a total of $5.6 billion (R92bn). JP Morgan Chase, Barclays Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Citigroup all pleaded guilty to foreign exchange manipulation. It boggles the mind how these developments could the linked to the recent crash of the value of the rand only days after Zuma sacked Nene and then manages to appoint two new finance ministers in four days.
Last year the US Justice Department said banks have been using “chatrooms to manipulate currency prices” – almost daily.
Shortly after this Bonakele announced the same investigation in South Africa to get to the bottom of the collapse of the rand.
He said they had initiated investigations against BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Barclays Bank and JP Morgan Chase. The commission will reportedly also investigating Investec and Standard Chartered Bank.
The ruling party – the ANC – is desperate to find culprits – other than their President – to blame for the demise of the rand and find measures to rein in the ailing economy.
President Jacob Zuma and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan are expected to announce some of the measures to fix the economy during the State of the Nation address next month (February 2016).
