Even at the best of times, banking in South Africa is not easy. But Nedcor, the country's third-largest bank in terms of its market capitalisation, has more reason to complain than most. Like many other financial institutions around the world, it feels the urge to merge. Yet when, last year, it launched a hostile bid for Stanbic, the second-largest, Stanbic ran to the government for protection. The battle grew heated. Such venomous insults were traded that the governor of the central bank told both parties to cool it. After nine months of government dithering, Trevor Manuel, the finance minister, blocked the merger in June on the grounds that it would reduce competition in banking and cost too many jobs.
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