The first blows have been struck between the banks and the unit trust companies over the soon-to-be-launched money-market unit trust funds.
The money-market funds will enable investors to pool their money to take advantage of higher wholesale deposit rates which are normally only available to institutions and the rich.
Your money will be invested in short-term financial market instruments such as negotiable certificates of deposit (NCDs), which are issued by banks, and Treasury Bills (TBs), which the government uses to raise funds for short-term use, normally about three months.
The banks have been opposed to money-market funds as they see them as yet another intrusion into their traditional field of business. They also believe it is placing pressure on them to narrow their interest rate margins (the difference between lending and borrowing rates).
Recent weeks have seen Nedbank and Standard Bank launch look-alike money-market fund products.
The products require a minimum deposit of R50 000, but unlike normal fixed deposits which require longer periods of notice for high interest rates, the money can be moved in and out of the account without notice.
However, Stella Pengilly, of RMB Asset Managers, says investors should be "wary of the high-interest bank accounts, which may give the impression of being money-market unit trusts".
"Whether by design or accident these products use money-market terminology, but they are simply bank accounts with a slightly higher rate of interest.
"A money-market fund is a unit trust with all the benefits associated with unit trusts."
Pengilly says the interest rates being offered by "these new bank accounts are nowhere near those which will soon be offered by real moneymarket funds".
She says the RMB Maximum Income fund, which has been deliberately run as a money-market fund since inception, is currently yielding about 15 percent, out-performing retail fixed deposit accounts by one to three percentage points over the past 18 months.