STEPHEN CRANSTON: The business of banking
It is time Nedbank was granted full independence, just as Standard Bank needs to let Liberty go
Little attention has been given to the second phase of the Old Mutual managed separation — the unbundling of Nedbank shares. This will be a rather half-hearted exercise as Old Mutual will still hold 19.9%. So it would not be difficult for it to still round up a few tame shareholders and block anything it didn’t like. It will be less visible, as the number of Old Mutual-appointed directors will fall from three to just one. And some restrictions will fall away. When Old Mutual rescued Nedbank in 2004 it was in a position to insist that the bank could not raise capital without the life office’s approval nor could it make material acquisitions. This was important as, under former CEO Richard Laubscher, the bank tried to convince everyone it wasn’t a bank but a technology holding company called Nedcor. It is a bit scary that FNB also considers itself to have morphed from a bank into a tech business. Under Laubscher’s successor Tom Boardman and incumbent Mike Brown these pretensions have ...
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