CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa's competition watchdog has granted Barclays (LON:BARC) Africa (J:BGAJ) conditional immunity from prosecution in return for its continuing cooperation in the rand currency rigging probe, the head of Competition Commission said on Tuesday.
The Commission said last week it had found more than a dozen local and foreign banks colluded to coordinate trading the South African and U.S currencies using an instant chat room called "ZAR Domination".
It recommended fines amounting to 10 percent of the banks' South African revenues in a scandal that has piled on political pressure on the country's big four local banks and raised questions about their grip on Africa's most industrialised economy.
"We did, through the investigation, receive a leniency application from Barclays/ABSA which cooperated and gave us more information," The head of the Commission Tembinkosi Bonakele told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.
"We have a conditional agreement with them on immunity but this is subject to confirmation depending on the extent of their cooperation."
Citigroup (NYSE:C) agreed to pay $5 million (4 million pounds) as settlement for its role in the cartel, the anti-trust watchdog said on Monday.
Citibank, N.A. South Africa said on Monday it aimed to improve its internal systems and monitoring processes after it agreed to pay the penalty.
Bonakele said even the amount was "low", it had made the compromise as part of a bigger prosecution case.
"I would say that the settlement was low, but as a prosecutor you sometimes have to make these calls because we have a bigger case to run," he said, referring to Citi.