Banking

Major banks still facing prosecution for rand manipulation in South Africa

Staff Writer

 ·19 Aug 2026

The Competition Commission says it will pursue prosecutions against seven major banks as part of its investigations into rand manipulation.

This includes BNP Paribas, JPMorgan Chase, JPMorgan Bank, HSBC Bank plc, Standard Americas, Investec Bank, and Investec Limited.

The Commission confirmed the path forward for its cartel case in a presentation to the Portfolio Committee of Trade, Industry and Competition on Wednesday (19 August).

In the presentation, the Commission contextualised the recent Constitutional Court ruling that cleared most of the accused banking groups from the investigation, including major local banks.

In June 2026, the Constitutional Court unanimously dismissed the Commission’s appeal against most of the banks, which it had accused of colluding to manipulate the rand.

The court ruled that the Commission’s prosecution against the banks was based on flawed factual assumptions and completely lacked the required evidentiary link to prove they participated in a single overarching conspiracy.

This cleared Standard Bank, Nedbank, FirstRand Bank and several other banks of the allegations.

However, the Commission told the portfolio committee that it had “partly won the appeal”, and that the ConCourt had cleared the path for it to prosecute the remaining banks.

The competition authority said it will now move ahead to prosecute the seven banks, with assistance from the five other banking groups that settled with the Commission or applied for leniency.

These five banks include Citibank NA and Standard Chartered Bank, which settled with the Commission, and Barclays Plc, Barclays Capital and Absa Bank Limited, which applied for leniency.

“The Constitutional Court judgment clears the way for the Commission to proceed with the prosecution of the [remaining seven] banks at the Tribunal,” it said.

It added that the court confirmed that the Commission can join new respondents at any stage during prosecution proceedings before the Competition Tribunal.

The table below outlines the two groups:

A 10-year case in the making

The case dates back to 2015, when the Competition Commission initiated a complaint against the banks.

It alleged that as many as 28 local and international banks had colluded to manipulate the US dollar/rand exchange rate between 2007 and at least September 2013.

Its investigations found that the banks had engaged in cartel behaviour, including the fixing of the buying and selling prices of these currencies.

It said that traders took turns buying or selling currencies, giving each other the opportunity to do so without interference from competition.

The Commission alleged that traders at the banks coordinated their trading strategies through electronic chatrooms, fixed bid-offer spreads, shared confidential customer information, and timed trades to influence the exchange rate.

The matter was escalated to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution in 2017.

However, over the following years, numerous procedural disputes delayed the matter, preventing any evidence on the alleged manipulation from being heard.

Citibank NA and Standard Chartered Bank settled their cases, paying R69.5 million and R42.7 million in liabilities in 2017 and 2023, respectively.

Barclays Plc, Barclays Capital and Absa Bank Limited were granted leniency from prosecution.

The other banks challenged the complaint, which was dismissed by the Tribunal in 2019. This went on to the Competition Appeal Court (CAC), which resulted in a new complaint referral being filed a year later.

This was again challenged at the Tribunal and then appealed at the CAC, which then ruled in favour of 16 of the banks in 2024.

The Competition Commission then took the matter to the Constitutional Court in 2025, resulting in the June 2026 judgement.