WORLDVIEW: One man behind SA’s banking scandal. A fellow called Jason Katz.

By Alec Hogg.So now we know why Jacob Zuma tore into SA's big banks in his SONA address last week, while simultaneously praising the Competition Commission. On Wednesday, the Commission referred 17 banks to the Competition Tribunal because of colluding forex traders..___STEADY_PAYWALL___.The mass media loves the story, putting its own interpretation onto a sober statement to stoke a banking conspiracy of collusion and abuse. Their headlines were manna from heaven for Zuma and his bank-licence-seeking, FICA-blocking friends the Guptas. Except the truth is rather different..A rational observer would have immediately smelled a rat when observing that of the 17 banks tagged by the Commission, only three of SA's Big Five are named – FirstRand and Nedbank are excluded. Also, one of the three, Absa, immediately issued a statement that it won't be fined. That means it has taken advantage of a whistleblowing clause: he who spills the beans pays no fines..Also, anyone who understands how banks work will know the vice-like tightening of regulations since 2008 has forced them into hiring armies of compliance officers. These internal financial policemen monitor everything the bank's traders do, from their phone calls and emails through to chat room discussions on the Bloomberg and Reuters platforms. In that environment, a conspiracy is simply impossible to instigate, much less keep hidden..So what is actually going on?.It all stems from a crooked former Barclays Plc trader Jason Katz who, in January, pleaded guilty in a Manhattan court. He was fingered in a lengthy US financial markets investigation. Katz specialised in Emerging Market currencies which included the South African Rand. After being nailed, he promptly turned State Witness – and as Absa is owned by Barclays, it took the opportunity to hand over the Rand-related information to the SA competition authorities..While details will come out in the wash in due course, it is apparent that Katz enlisted fellow miscreants at other institutions. He has shopped his partners in crime and as banks are subject by law to Vicarious Liability (responsible for the actions of all employees) their 17 employers are now on the hook..Katz has confessed. He is a criminal. He abused his position of trust at Barclays to skim illegal profits from trading the Rand among other currencies. He did this through associates who worked at other financial institutions, three of whom were South African..He and his pals belong in jail. But this bad apple and a handful of associates in Johannesburg doesn't make the entire SA banking system corrupt. And certainly isn't grounds to award the Guptas a banking licence in the name of "promoting competition".

WORLDVIEW: One man behind SA’s banking scandal. A fellow called Jason Katz.

Related Stories

Meet Tshepo Mahloele – Big Capitec shareholder, ABSIP’s “CEO of the Decade” now accused by Holomisa as kingpin of corrupt network

PREMIUM: Making of a great editor – the George Palmer playbook

Premium – BizNews global portfolio: ASML joins – so does Adobe as Bull takes hold again

Alec Hogg: Helen Zille predicts SA choice will be DA or EFF