Standard Bank’s spirited fight against the South African Competition Commission in the foreign exchange collusion scandal that rocked the banking sector earlier this year failed to pass the first hurdle on Monday, November 6, after the Competition Tribunal denied it access to the record of the Commission’s evidence against it, claiming that because of “the length of the record, the extent of the confidential information in it and the burden it would place on the commission in preparing it, a reasonable time for production would be at the same time as discovery is made in the [foreign exchange] case”.
The bank, which was implicated with 17 other banks in collusion over rand-dollar currency trading, lodged a separate application against the Commission, relying on the rule that allows implicated parties access to the anti-graft body’s records when it refers investigations to the tribunal. However, the Tribunal rebuffed the request and said the bank was not yet entitled to have the records.
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