ANZ's chief risk officer, Nigel Williams, said the bank had beefed up its compliance since the investigation in Singapore. Credit:Peter Braig ANZ has agreed to the allegations and offered to pay a penalty of $9 million, while Macquarie has volunteered to pay a $6 million fine. The final size of the fines will be set by the courts. The two banks have filed statements of agreed facts in the Federal Court, which detail online chats between traders that the watchdogs says show attempts to fix the rate. On July 14, 2011, Macquarie trader Istvan Wye Lung Loh chatted to an SCB (Standard Chartered Bank) representative and offered to ask traders from other banks to make high MYR rate submissions. Mr Loh later told the SCB trader that ANZ, Credit Suisse, BNP, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and ING would all make high MYR submissions, in conduct the ACCC says was designed to influence the MYR Fixing Rate.

It's Macquarie everywhere you look! Credit:Bloomberg The ACCC details eight occasion in which Mr Loh had similar chat with the purpose of influencing the rate. The court filings reveal 10 occasions on which Singapore-based ANZ traders Wei Ewen Chew, Wai Theng Hooi and Joo Heng Tan used online chats to conspire with other traders, including Mr Loh at Macquarie, to make high or low submissions to influence the fixing rate. Mr Sims said the ACCC took on the case to defend the integrity of financial markets, and to remind the financial sector of its obligations under this part of the law, which also applies to misconduct overseas. "We wanted to make it clear that the cartel laws do apply to the financial sector. Banks are heavily regulated by other regulators, but we just wanted to remind them that the cartel laws do apply," he told BusinessDay.

"We've had the slight sense that they're so focused on other regulators they sort of aren't fully aware that they're also subject to the Competition and Consumer Act." Malaysia's exchange rate does not float freely on global markets as the Australian dollar does. Instead, it is set through daily process where 15 banks submit their view on the rate based on their own transactions. The Association of Banks in Singapore excludes submissions in the top and bottom quartile, then sets the rate based on the two middle quartiles. "It's a non-convertible currency, therefore the rate has got to be set according to what the banks say," Mr Sims said. "They're supposed to say that independently, and they weren't doing it independently they were actually discussing in chat rooms what suited their position and attempting to increase the rate accordingly." ANZ's chief risk officer, Nigel Williams, said the bank had beefed up its compliance in recent years, after a separate 2013 investigation by Singapore's authorities. This probe, which also alleged attempted rigging of key rates, forced ANZ and Macquarie to set aside millions in extra capital.

"While there is no evidence that FX benchmarks in Singapore were successfully influenced, we accept responsibility and apologise for the actions of our former employees. We have made significant improvements to our compliance, training and monitoring systems to ensure this does not happen again," Mr Williams said. Loading Macquarie said the trader involved was terminated in 2012. "Macquarie notes the ACCC does not allege, nor does Macquarie make an admission, that it engaged in any conduct affecting the benchmark or that Macquarie obtained any benefit from the attempted behaviour," the bank said in a statement.