By Eddie Connell
I am an expat working for a South African gold mining company in Guinea, West Africa. My salary is paid in US dollars, which is finally paid into my Standard Bank account via a few overseas transactions.
The process that applies to earning dollars is that the bank informs me via email that my salary has been received. By logging onto their ‘Inward Transfer’ website, I can then either select to exchange to Rand immediately or to transact at a later stage. In my case I usually elect to transact at a later stage as I have noticed that around month-end the Rand strengthens and then towards the middle of the month it weakens.
What has been happening to some of us is that the alert email is never sent to us and without our approval our salary is converted at the going rate, let alone the spot rate, which I always ask for. The most recent occurrence saw a rate of R11.60 ‘forced’ on us at the end of May. Very soon after this the exchange rate hit highs of R12.50/60 against the dollar.
My gripe is that the bank is steamrolling us into a transaction, which I feel is illegal and without consent. They are doing this to benefit from the weakening rand.
Has anyone else come across this scenario?
To this day, I have not been provided with an answer to my queries. I have contacted my private banker who has given a commitment to act on my behalf, but to date nothing has come of it.
* Eddie Connell is a biznews community member, his response follows articles around currency collusion.
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