Slim pickings in South Africa

South Africa's emerging mass affluent investor base has yet to take to derivatives-based investments. However, several institutions, including Rand Merchant Bank and Investec, are trying hard to change this state of affairs. Daniel Sheehan reports

South Africa is now mentioned in the same breath as the so-called Bric major emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India and China. Evidence of the country's economic growth is everywhere to see, with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange All Share index shooting up by an impressive 38% in 2006. And unlike the Bric economies, South Africa already has a mature financial infrastructure in place. It therefore comes as a surprise that structured products issuance there contracted last year, according to