Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) is a diversified financial services brand encompassing investment banking, fund management, corporate banking and advisory services. All businesses in the RMB brand stable form part of the wider FirstRand Group.
We trade
RMB Global Markets
RMB Global Markets is one of the biggest market makers in the South African financial market. The Global Markets team is made up of highly skilled specialists and dealers who advise, structure and create new products and treasury risk management solutions for clients seeking yield or wanting to mitigate financial market risk.
Our innovative thinking and robust systems enable us to partner with our institutional, corporate, wealth, retail and public sector clients to create long-term, reliable and sustainable execution, asset servicing, prime broking and clearing solutions. We also have a proven track record in providing our clients with alternative and enhanced fund solutions in various asset classes in South Africa, Africa, the UK and India.RMB Global Markets offers a range of innovative, customised, financial risk management and hedging solutions to protect institutional, corporate and public sector clients against the full suite of interest rate, currency, liquidity, commodity, equity and credit risks.
Interest rate risk solutions
Changing interest rates can either reduce your investment returns or increase your borrowing costs. Whether you are indebted by way of a secured or unsecured loan, a mortgage or asset-based finance, an interest rate risk exposure exists and could put your business at substantial risk. RMB Global Markets offers a range of interest rate hedging solutions to protect you from these risks.Currency risk
Fluctuating exchange rates can pose many challenges to business owners. A change in the exchange rate can increase the domestic costs of running your business, reduce your earnings or affect the value of your offshore assets. RMB Global Markets offers clients a suite of foreign exchange risk solutions to decrease the domestic cost of running a business, while minimising their risk in terms of:- Exposure to different currencies
- The outlook for a particular currency cross
- Liquidity of the currency
- Timing of the exposure
- Exchange control implications related to any proposed currency hedging solution
- Transaction exposure
- Translation exposure
- Economic exposure
View the General conditions of contract relating to foreign currency transactions and the collection of foreign cheques document.
View the South African Reserve Bank’s website for their publically available Exchange Control user guide.
View the Annexure to Short Term Loans and Deposits Confirmations document.
Liquidity risk solutions
Short-term cash flow problems without access to bridging finance can place your company at risk. RMB Global Markets provides liquidity through lending (from overnight to 18-month facilities), in terms of individual secured or unsecured credit lines by way of:
- Approved secured, unsecured, committed, or uncommitted credit lines per client
- Financing commodities throughout the entire working capital chain
- Facilitating funding through capital markets via commercial paper and corporate bond markets
- A dedicated Money Market desk that offers professional investors a comprehensive range of products and services, which complement other RMB Global Markets solutions
Commodity risk solutions
RMB Global Markets trades commodities (metals, energy and agriculture) on a daily basis and is a leading provider of hedging, financing and trading solutions. Our specialist team of commodity future traders offers investors opportunities to hedge, diversify and enhance their commodity trading strategies.Credit risk solutions
Changing credit spreads can reduce your investment returns or increase your borrowing costs.Global Markets Fund Solutions
RMB Global Market Fund Solutions focuses on structured investment solutions for retail, wealth, corporate and institutional clients (such as pension funds). Our clients seek investments that address their needs in terms of investment duration, liquidity, income, appetite for risk, asset class diversification, transparency, simplicity, cost structure and structural efficiencies. RMB Global Market Fund Solutions uses a diverse basket of financial instruments (such as equities, cash, credit, derivatives, inflation, foreign currency, and commodities) to meet these needs in the innovative, alternative market space, with an impeccable track record in terms of quality, performance and innovative product design.RMB Global Market Fund Solutions broadly groups these solutions into the following categories:
- Retail structured products
- Indexed products
- Alternative investments
- Bespoke investment vehicles
Equity sales, trading and research
We conduct our equity sales, trading and research activities through a joint venture with Morgan Stanley, a leader in global equities.In 2005, Morgan Stanley formed a joint venture with RMB to provide sales and trading services for JSE-traded equity-linked securities, publish research on South African companies and distribute Morgan Stanley's global equity research in South Africa.
Morgan Stanley’s South African activities include: providing commodity, foreign exchange, asset liability management and interest-rate-related solutions to local clients as well as actively participating in the domestic bond, equity and derivative markets.
In September 2006, Morgan Stanley entered into a debt cooperation agreement with RMB. The debt co-operation agreement allows Morgan Stanley and RMB to leverage jointly their respective skill sets and provide differentiated debt capital market and related solutions for our South African clients. Products include global investment and non-investment grade bonds and securitisation offerings of local assets for South African corporate clients.
Visit our website at www.rmb.co.za/globalmarkets/ or email us at globalmarkets@rmb.co.za.
CJ Giddy and Pierre Joubert are Co-heads of RMB Global Markets and can be contacted on +27 11 282 8000.
Debt Capital Markets
Asset backed commercial paper conduits
We sponsor two asset backed commercial paper conduits, iNdwa and iVuzi. These debt capital market vehicles offer investment grade corporates alternative funding sources to traditional bank funding.Overnight call bond fund
We sponsor an overnight call bond fund, iNkotha, which offers overnight borrowers and lenders an alternative to traditional overnight bank products at attractive rates.Secured debenture programme
iNguza is a pass-through vehicle that allows for the efficient transfer of South African corporate credit exposures to capital market investors.RMB ETNs
RMB Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs) open up the listed product universe to investors by offering easy access to a range of products or asset classes that were previously expensive and difficult to acquire. RMB ETNs are traded on the JSE exactly like a share and track the return of a benchmark index or strategy. Unlike Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), the underlying pool of assets of ETNs, is owned by FirstRand and not held in a segregated fund or Collective Investment Scheme. RMB ETNs are managed by the RMB Global Markets Fund Solutions business.
View more information on ETNs.