More than six years after the Competition Commission accused 18 banks of colluding to fix the rand exchange rate, Standard Bank is still trying to get its hands on the commission’s evidence for the case, in which it says it did nothing wrong.

‘We have not acted as alleged, have done nothing unlawful and will continue to defend or pursue legal proceedings in pursuit of challenging the Competition Commissions allegations,’ the bank reportedly told Business Day.

‘Standard Bank maintains that the allegations made are without merit and it will continue to defend its position.’ In its results for the year to end-December 2022, published last Thursday, the bank says it has conducted its own investigations into the matter with the help of external counsel and ‘found no evidence that supports the complaints’.

Africa’s biggest lender wants the commission to hand over the details of its investigation into the alleged forex collusion so that it can get a better understanding of why it stands accused.

Standard Bank managed to get its arguments in favour of being granted access to the evidence heard by the Competition Appeal Court on 21 February and says it expects a ruling to be made in the first half of the year.

The commission had opposed the handing over of its evidence on the grounds that such disclosure would give Standard Bank an unfair advantage in litigation before the Competition Tribunal.

The matter goes back to February 2017 when the commission filed a referral with the tribunal against 18 banks, many of them foreign, which it alleged had colluded to rig the rand-dollar exchange rate.

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