African currency acquired by American banker, a respected figure (5,3,3)
I believe the answer is:
grand old man
'a respected figure' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'african currency acquired by american banker' is the wordplay.
'african currency' becomes 'rand' (currency of South Africa).
'acquired by' is an insertion indicator.
'american banker' becomes 'goldman' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'rand' going inside 'goldman' is 'GRAND OLD MAN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for grand old man that I've seen is " Greatly respected person".)