South Canterbury Finance, New Zealand's largest finance company deemed too-big-to-fail finally collapsed, but not before the government stepped in with a disguised bail-out to ensure minimal disruption to the wider economy.The government did this by securing a first-ranked creditor position in the receivership to avoid the pressure of quickly selling off the assets so that businesses that owe money can continue to operate and thus avoid a spill over effect from the collapse of a large lender.The government has promptly paid the NZ$1.6 billion owed to depositors by making the full payment to the Trustee. It also made a loan of NZ$175 million to the receiver which will be used to repay all of SCF's prior ranking debts.SCF's collapse ends several weeks of speculation on whether the company would survive beyond the key 31 August date. The company had either to sell assets or to get a fresh capital infusion so it could amend breaches of its Trust deed.  CEO Sandy Maier made brave attempts to ensure SCF's survival, but could not stitch up a deal despite negotiations till the early hours of 31 August. The company was last talking to three sets of investors but could not agree on price or other terms of the deal.SCF's fate was probably sealed last December when it was critically short of both cash and equity as of 31 December.  The company had around NZ$7 million then and it was no coincidence that the day it went into receivership it was well short of capital and had just NZ$7 million in cash. In between the two dates, SCF's founder Alan Hubbard injected a lot of equity in the form of assets and Torchlight also infused funds, but by taking a prior charge on SCF's assets.Maier says SCF's fate was of its own doing. "The company's failure was a result of its own actions, activities, poor choices historically," which could not be overcome, Maier said, adding SCF's problems were poor governance and mismanagement.Compounding SCF's problems were several rating downgrades it received in the last year, which brought the rating down to CC earlier this month. A big jolt to its brand came after Hubbard was put in to statutory management in June.