Compliance
ANZ, Macquarie Collectively Fined $11 Million Over Attempted Cartel Conduct

An investigation by Australia's competition authorities discovered that both banks attempted to skew a key fixing rate.
Australia's federal court has slapped multi-million dollar
penalties on Australia and New Zealand Banking Group and Macquarie Bank after
a probe conducted by the country's competition authorities
revealed attempted cartel conduct.
During the relevant period of misconduct, traders employed by a
number of banks in Singapore communicated through online
chatrooms about daily submissions to be made to the Association
of Banks in Singapore in relation to the benchmark rate for
the Malaysian ringgit (ABS MYR Fixing Rate).
The ABS MYR Fixing Rate is used as a reference rate for settling
non-deliverable forward contracts. Non-deliverable currencies are
not freely tradeable outside of the domestic economy, so a
benchmark rate must be set by banks submitting their views on the
appropriate rate.
In 2011, ANZ and Macquarie
Bank traders attempted to make arrangements with other banks to
make high or low submissions to the ABS MYR Fixing Rate, which
would ultimately have affected settlement payments for MYR
denominated NDFs.
ANZ was fined A$9 million ($6.8 million) after it admitted during
litigation that it had engaged in 10 instances of attempted
cartel conduct in breach of Australia's Competition and Consumer
Act.
Macquarie Bank was not hit quite as hard. The court imposed a A$6
million fine for engaging in eight instances of attempted cartel
conduct.
Both banks were also ordered to contribute to the Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission's legal costs.
“These penalties underline the seriousness of the conduct
involved in these proceedings. Two significant Australian banks
have admitted that on several occasions their traders
communicated with other banks in an attempt to influence the ABS
MYR Fixing Rate. This conduct had the potential to undermine the
integrity of foreign exchange markets and undermine healthy
economic growth,” said ACCC chairman Rod Sims.