On The Money
STUART THEOBALD: No quick solution to offloading African Bank
The rescue of African Bank has been one of the Reserve Bank’s greatest success stories. But it brought a big headache: how to get out of it without too big a loss. Last week it said its preferred exit strategy is an initial public offering. It is going to be hard.
It is easy to forget just how serious the collapse of the bank was back in 2014. It was unusual in that it raised cash in the money markets instead of from deposits. As the bank headed for trouble, a run was triggered on money market funds, even though African Bank paper was a small part of these. The run potentially meant these funds had to pull funding from the rest of the banking system, setting the stage for a contagious financial crisis...
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