South Africa's competition watchdog is investigating several global banks for fixing the price of local currency in their trading, it said on Tuesday. The banks being investigated are BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Barlcays, JP Morgan, Investec and Standard Chartered, the Competition Commission said in a statement."The respondents, who are traders in foreign currencies, have allegedly been directly or indirectly fixing prices in relation to bids, offers and bid-offer spreads in respect of spot, futures and forwards currency trades," it said."The alleged collusion the “ZAR domination” was carried out through electronic messaging platforms used for currency trading, which enabled the Respondents to coordinate their trading activities when quoting customers who buy or sell currencies. This coordination has the effect of eliminating competition among the Respondents, as it enabled them to charge an agreed price for a specific amount of currency," the commission said.“Conduct of this nature distorts the price of foreign exchange and artificially inflates the cost of trading in foreign currency paired with the South African rand. Indications are that this conduct was prevalent offshore, but with this investigation we are sending a clear message that we will pursue cartels affecting South Africa wherever they take place” said the Competition Commissioner, Tembinkosi Bonakele in the statement...