Libya takes on Goldman Sachs
14 February, 2014As Sanusi Is Suspended, Is Nigeria Still The World’s Market Darling?
21 February, 2014Forbes.com, February 2014
This week reports emerged that South Africa’s Standard Bank was in negotiations to take Deutsche Bank’s seat at something known as the London fix: the group of banks who chair the price-setting mechanism for the global gold benchmark. On first glance it looked interesting and perhaps practical that South Africa, as a leading gold producer, should seek a seat at this particular table. But that is to miss the point. What is much more interesting is that Standard Bank is 20% owned by China’s Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) – which is also in the process of buying a majority stake in Standard’s UK-based markets business, including commodities.
To understand the significance of this step, let’s take a look at the various elements of the story.
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