Around 90% of the investors and analysts who gathered together in Chile at the end of January for a two-day Scotiabank investor conference had never been to South America before, according to one of the host’s senior management team.
But following Scotiabank’s acquisition of BBVA’s bank in Chile in 2018, the bank’s president and chief executive, Brian Porter, was keen to improve awareness of the increasing importance of the Latin American trade bloc known as the Pacific Alliance (formed by Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru) in the bank’s international focus.
“We were pleased to showcase our operations across the Americas at Scotiabank’s investor day in Santiago, Chile,” Porter tells Euromoney. “Our investors understand that Scotiabank is focused on the Americas. We have built leading market positions in North America and in high-growth LatAm countries where we see opportunities for high returns and strong growth. Today we are operating from a position of strength and we were happy to showcase that to investors.”
There was concern that the widespread popular protests that started in Chile in October and flashed across the world’s media would undermine the bank’s argument that the country (and the Pacific Alliance in general) was a resilient growth opportunity and one that will help the bank outperform its peers.
