The Standard Bank of South Africa has welcomed the Competition Appeal Court’s decision to uphold its appeal by dismissing currency manipulation allegations against Standard Bank.
The ruling comes several years after the Competition Commission’s decision to charge several banks, including Standard Bank, over allegations of collusion to manipulate the foreign exchange rate.
The Competition Appeal Court handed down its judgment on 8 January 2024, which accepted the bank’s evidence over a period of seven years that it had not been party to an international conspiracy to manipulate trading in the USD/ZAR currency pair, and consequently held that the Competition Commission’s complaint in that regard is dismissed.