Johannesburg, London

Barclays Africa Group Ltd. apologised for its role in a rand-fixing affair involving more than a dozen banks, saying that it tipped off regulators about the practice after suspending two of its own traders.

“We deeply regret that this conduct took place within our organisation,” Chief Executive Officer Maria Ramos said on a conference call Thursday, without identifying the employees. “Those who contravened our rules will be held accountable.” South Africa’s antitrust investigators listed more than a dozen banks, including Barclays Africa, in its probe earlier this month and named more than 30 traders for price fixing and market allocation in the trading of foreign-currency pairs involving the rand. Citigroup Inc. on Feb. 20 said that it agreed to pay a penalty of almost 70 million rand (Djh19.83 million; $5.4 million) to settle the case and would make witnesses available to help prosecute other banks.

Barclays Africa’s Absa unit said in a statement Thursday that the Competition Commission isn’t seeking any administrative penalty against the bank. The lender said it brought the conduct of the currency traders to the attention of the commission under the regulator’s leniency programme.

Financials

Barclays shares rose to the highest in more than a year as its capital ratio climbed more than expected and the bank signalled progress in efforts to divest its Africa unit and sell off unwanted assets.

Fourth-quarter pretax profit was 330 million pounds (Dh1.51 billion; $410 million), from a loss of 2.1 billion pounds a year ago, the London-based lender said in a statement Thursday. Adjusted pretax profit of 284 million pounds fell short of the 646 million-pound average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News, as the firm took a charge for accelerating the costs of deferred bonuses.

The results mark the end of Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley’s first year in charge, in which he rebuffed calls to spin off or radically shrink the investment bank, instead opting to speed up business sales and sell down the firm’s African business.

Under pressure

The antitrust finding comes as President Jacob Zuma and his governing African National Congress step up pressure on the country’s four largest lenders, saying they should lend more to black clients. Zuma and the banks are also locked in a stand-off after the lenders closed the accounts of companies tied to his friends, the Gupta family, who are accused of using their relationship with him to influence government appointments and contracts.

Barclays Africa was also the target of protests outside some branches after a leaked draft report by South Africa’s anti-graft ombudsman said the lender may have benefited from a bailout provided to a bank it bought before the end of apartheid.

Barclays Africa rose 0.6 per cent to 158.51 rand as of 10:30am in Johannesburg. It’s the worst-performing bank stock in South Africa this year, having declined 5.8 per cent compared with the average drop of 4.8 per cent on the six-member banks index.

— Bloomberg