South Africa's Competition Commission reached a settlement agreement with Citigroup Inc.'s Citibank NA for its role in the price manipulation of the South African rand, BusinessTech of South Africa reported Feb. 20.

Citibank agreed to pay an administrative penalty of 69.5 million rand for colluding with other banks in the so-called forex trading cartel, according to the report. The commission has filed the settlement with the Competition Tribunal, the report added.

As previously reported, Citibank was not included in the commission's list of 17 banks implicated for collusion and agreed to cooperate with the probe.

As of Feb. 17, US$1 was equivalent to 13.06 South African rand.