South African bank Nedbank, majority owned by insurer Old Mutual, will merge its corporate and investment banking units, bringing wholesale operations under one management team. Brian Kennedy, head of Nedbank Capital, will be responsible for the merged unit from 1 January. Together the two businesses contributed around half of Nedbank’s earnings in the six months to end-June, the bank said. The bank had said it plans to acquire 20% of pan-African lender Ecobank Transnational for $493 million.
