BRIEF-South Africa's Competition Commission prosecutes banks for collusion

Feb 15 (Reuters) - South Africa’s Competition Commission:

* South Africa’s Competition Commission - competition commission prosecutes banks (currency traders) for collusion

* South Africa’s Competition Commission - referred a collusion case to tribunal for prosecution against bank of america merrill lynch international limited, bnp paribas, jp morgan chase & co

* South Africa’s Competition Commission - collusion case includes jp morgan chase bank n.a, investec ltd, standard new york securities inc., hsbc bank plc, standard chartered bank, credit suisse group; standard bank of south africa ltd

* South Africa’s Competition Commission - also includes australia and new zealand banking group limited, nomura international plc., macquarie bank limited, absa bank limited (absa), barclays capital inc, barclays bank plc

* s. Africa’s competition commission- has been investigating a case of price fixing and market allocation in trading of foreign currency pairs involving rand since april 2015

* South Africa’s Competition Commission - has now referred case to tribunal for prosecution

* South Africa’s Competition Commission - found that from at least 2007, respondents had a general agreement to collude on prices for bids, offers and bid-offer spreads for spot trades in relation to currency trading involving us dollar / rand currency pair

* South Africa’s Competition Commission - found that respondents manipulated price of bids and offers through agreements to refrain from trading and creating fictitious bids and offers at particular times

* South Africa’s Competition Commission - commission is seeking an order from tribunal declaring that respondents have contravene competition act

* South Africa’s Competition Commission - is seeking an order declaring that banks are liable for payment of an administrative penalty equal to 10% of their annual turnover. (Bengaluru Newsroom: +91 80 6749 1136)