Access Bank’s long-anticipated acquisition of South Africa’s Bidvest Bank has collapsed, ending one of the most closely watched cross-border banking deals between West and Southern Africa. The transaction was terminated after Nigeria’s biggest bank by assets failed to meet key regulatory conditions by the agreed deadline date of January 26, 2026. In a filing to the Nigerian Exchange on Tuesday, Access Holdings Plc, its parent company, confirmed that the deal fell through because “certain conditions (including regulatory conditions) were not fully met.” “The outcome reflects the complexities and extended timelines associated with multijurisdictional regulatory and transactional processes, rather than any change in the Bank’s strategic intent or assessment of the South African market,” the...