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LATEST ARTICLES
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Having taken a hammering following Mexico’s election results and the Brazilian president's comments on fiscal consolidation, the prospects for the key Latin American currencies over the remainder of 2024 are unclear.
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Investing in Latin America’s payment fintechs is having a moment – but will the region’s central banks kill off their revenue model by adopting their own version of Brazil’s PIX?
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Falling inflation has sparked an early surge in credit demand, which offers the prospect of banking normalization – a potential boon given the negative real interest rates banks are earning on their government securities portfolios.
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New transition bond includes step-down, as new ‘green infrastructure’ bond issued.
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The bank's new CEO has posted his first market-beating quarterly results, but the firm's exposure to lower-income segments could limit longer-term upside.
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A report from Citi asks if Mexican banks must increase interest rates on their deposit base.
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CEO Leandro Miranda tells Euromoney that the firm will use recently granted CVM license and secured deal mandates to raise equity.
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Mexican banks have sold off hard since Claudia Sheinbaum – as widely expected – was confirmed as the country’s next president.
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Though HSBC retrenched from other Latin American markets, it stayed in Mexico, and country chief Jorge Arce says that the bank is well-positioned to take advantage of the nation’s unique blend of structural growth drivers.
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The bank is looking to capitalise on its local presence in Latin America as Korean and Chinese firms intensify their nearshoring efforts.
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Unlike other firms in Latin America, BTG Pactual hides its growing retail digital banking business within its wealth-management division. Why?
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New accounts targeted at low-income customers reflects the reality of intense competition in the sector.
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The Brazilian neobank is growing its number of clients faster than perhaps any financial institution on earth. Combine this with static unit costs and the operational leverage potential is big. CFO Guilherme Lago explains how its business model is now focused on the next five to 10 years as open banking generates unprecedented price transparency, customer portability and opportunity.
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Does Banco Galicia’s acquisition of HSBC Argentina validate president Javier Milei or weaken him?
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XP has succeeded in Brazil by using its technological efficiencies to win on digital experience and price. But now the incumbents are catching up and XP chief executive Thiago Maffra is focusing on developing service beyond pure online delivery.
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President Javier Milei campaigned on cuts – and that is what he has delivered. But like all extreme diets, the approach is unsustainable. Time to rethink the plan.
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The paradox of Itaú is that it has maintained its leadership of Brazil’s banking sector with an ease and assuredness in recent years that belies the radical and continual transformation going on under the surface. The bank’s CFO, Alexsandro Broedel, tells Euromoney that its management’s only real constant is to view every new player as an existential threat – and react accordingly.
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Reports that the long-rumoured deal has been agreed suggest growing optimism among Argentine bankers about the new administration.
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The leading neobanks in Brazil seem to have hit their stride in terms of profitability just as some of the traditional banks have stumbled. Are these firms the future of Brazilian banking?
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The Brazilian government’s changes to the laws governing its tax-exempt debentures have allayed financial market fears that president Lula intends to rely on BNDES to fund billions spending on infrastructure, crowding out private-sector finance.
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Chief executive Carlos Eduardo Guimarães says that he expects the bank’s return on equity to double to between 20% and 22% in the next two years.
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Banco Inter reported return on equity of 8.5% in the fourth quarter of 2023 but is now targeting a return on equity of 30% by 2028, CFO Santiago Stel tells Euromoney.
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Domestic companies launch banking-as-a-service models as the country's central bank creates space for new entrants.
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A recent rule change means that Brazilian banks will be able to use tax credits related to provision expenses sooner – and the impact could be material.
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It is not hard to find short-term worries over global markets’ state of readiness for the US’s transition to one-day settlement in late May. But even if the UK, Europe and those Asian markets still using two-day settlement can adapt to the shift in the longer term, they will also face intense pressure to lessen their dislocation from the US cycle by copying its move. Many also fear the ultimate end-game of same-day or even instant settlement.
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Brazil’s banks have been talking a good game about capturing the outperformance of smaller, privately held companies in the country. Now a new banking advisory firm – packed with senior bankers – has made this segment its entire business strategy.
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New entrants spur breadth and depth in the country’s capital markets.
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A team of once-public sector bankers and officials is launching a new private equity fund that aims to identify ‘climate winners’ from the transition to a decarbonized economy. It has identified key industries but its central thesis is regulation.
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The cost to the government of supporting the Mexican oil firm’s debt could rise to 1.5% of GDP in 2025. Could it walk away?
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BR Partners grew steadily up until its successful IPO in 2021. However, tougher markets since that float have led to a period of relative consolidation. Will 2024 see a resumption of chief executive Ricardo Lacerda’s ambitious empire building?
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The appointment of Marcelo Noronha as chief executive of Bradesco should probably have taken place five years ago. Is he still the right man for the job?
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The bank must broaden its horizons if performance is to improve.
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The sovereign pushed hard on its first use-of-proceeds green bond, but a sustainability-linked bond was not seen as a practical option for now.
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Markets jump on the news that Javier Milei will be Argentina’s next president. A large devaluation is needed, but that leads to the risk of deposit flight.
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Sector shows strong profit performance in the third quarter as asset quality improves.
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As Citi presses on with its consumer-banking exits around the world, the job of defining what its international network now represents falls to its newly appointed head of international, Ernesto Torres Cantú.
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Private banking clients have begun exploring alternative asset allocation strategies in Brazil. Euromoney talks to the founders of a startup that is tapping into this demand with a strategy focused on special situations.
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High interest-rate regulations skew credit portfolio allocation and stifle new entrants to the sector, but the new president may have other challenges to solve first.
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Digital banks look to online games to help drive retention.
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It is rare that a popular, fast-growing and secure financial product is put at risk, but could the boom in FGTS loans in Brazil be under existential threat?
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If you owe the IMF $3.6 billion, it’s your problem. But if you owe the IMF $36 billion, it is their problem.
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Deutsche Bank’s Mexico team says the country is vital for Latin American credibility and that nearshoring will drive FDI in the coming decade.
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Patricio Sepúlveda, head of Chile’s public debt office, discusses how programmatic issuance demonstrates commitment to sustainability-linked bond goals and can make these structures more cost effective.
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The frontrunner in the Argentine presidential election campaign has said he wants to abolish the peso and replace it with the US dollar. Is it blue-sky thinking or just greenback dreaming?
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Private bankers are eyeing PE and venture capital investments as digital platforms emerge in Brazil, but personal advisory remains critical.
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The Brazilian bank is focused on new initiatives aimed at boosting active-user rates, including a new global app and buy-now-pay-later product.
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Trade and currency wars have boosted Brazil’s agribusiness sector in the past couple of years. Higher prices for soft commodities have, however, accelerated a trend that has been noticeable for many years: the country’s inward focus.
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The country’s economy was already weak before a serious drought hit. Now it is broke, and the question in Buenos Aires isn’t whether finance minister Sergio Massa can muddle through to the presidential election at the end of October, it is whether he can make it to the primaries in August before a full-blown financial crisis.
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The evolution of Brazil’s central bank payments programme could be good news for banks.
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UBS’s acquisition of Credit Suisse will further reduce the number of large international private banks in Brazil. Julius Baer has been quick to take advantage of this.
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The country’s banking system seems as solid as ever, but its banks are seeing an uptick in delinquencies that could spin out of control.
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The echoes of 2014 have been loud in Brazil’s private banking industry over the past 12 months. A precipitous fall in interest rates – followed by a meteoric rise – has left the market completely the same but also very different.
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When the news broke that Argentina was thinking of merging its currency with that of its neighbour, Brazil, my immediate question was: which Argentine peso?
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The bank’s chief financial officer says Inter is moving into an expansion phase, following an ambitious and aspirational ‘north star’.
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The bank’s new head must withstand political pressure to extend subsidized credit and lower underwriting standards.
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A persuasive case can be made for nearshoring, but so far in Latin America there has been little direct evidence that it is happening. In Mexico, things are about to change.
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Nearshoring has been seen to drive credit growth among the country’s smaller regional banks.
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The region’s advantage is likely to be short-lived and could fade by 2024, according to JPMorgan's private bank head.
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Local flows to fixed income and equity redemptions limit ECM liquidity.
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Restrictions on redundancies force out larger banks in Mexico from bidding for business.
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Uruguay reignites the debate on transition finance with its sovereign sustainability-linked bond.
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The bank is focusing on organic growth by acquiring retail clients and launching a private bank.
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Proactive risk tightening in 2021 sees surging return on equity as scale brings operational leverage.
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The market reaction to the third-quarter results from Brazil’s second-largest private bank has revealed investor sensitivity to banks’ deteriorating asset quality.
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Bank’s ESG head urges competitors and regulators to respond more quickly to emissions accounting challenge.
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While fintechs have been thriving in Brazil and throughout Latin America, the region’s local stock exchanges have failed to attract IPOs.
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Brazil’s agribusiness sector is booming on the back of sky-high commodity prices. The public banks that have long financed the sector now face a wave of new private-sector competitors.
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The Brazilian world of digital banks has it all: billionaire unicorns, sub-brands created by the incumbents and completely new disruptors. But one player has been quietly growing under the radar to become the country’s second-largest digital player.
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The new administration is expected to be less receptive to bank privatization as the result boosts ‘Lula portfolio’ stocks.
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If Lula wins in Brazil, he is unlikely to focus on the strength of the private-sector banks because fintechs are doing that for him already.
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While the impact on energy is centre stage, the war in Ukraine is also wreaking havoc on soft commodity prices and trade routes. Trade in agricultural commodities is taking a hit. The pool of banks financing these commodities is already dwindling, while the risks for those that remain are growing.
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In its latest funding round, Brazilian-based Creditas proved that valuations for the stronger fintechs can buck the falling trend seen among the large, publicly listed startups.
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Banco do Brasil’s outstanding second quarter means that scrutiny will intensify at its domestic rival.
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Argentina faces yet another financial crisis and has brought in a new ‘super-minister’ to try to calm the market and placate the IMF. While he will find a sympathetic ear at the fund, not many other international investors are listening anymore.
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The US bank has reorganized its Latam wealth management business to focus on faster growing countries, but home bias remains a tough instinct to overcome.
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Will higher rates today come at the price of more pain tomorrow?
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Campaigning for October’s presidential election has yet to officially start in Brazil, but it is expected to be bitter – and the risks of political fall out for Brazilian banks have already become all too clear.
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Latin America’s corporates are embracing sustainable local debt financing with enthusiasm. The region’s bankers are betting that it’s going to be as good for bookrunner fees as it promises to be for the environment.
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Eric Cardozo, co-founding partner, COO and CFO of Brazilian private banking boutique WHG, talks to Euromoney about quitting a mainstream firm in 2020 and why more private bankers in the country seem to be following suit.
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Asset quality is under threat across the region, but particularly in Peru.
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The pressure for a short-term boost to ROE might force Bradesco to re-evaluate its insurance portfolio.
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Plans to incentivize foreign capital aim to boost capacity, with a new internal ‘investment bank’ to drive growing pipeline.
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A combination of geographical position and commodity strength is working in the country’s favour.
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The war in Ukraine has further highlighted the benefits of Banco Santander’s diversification across Europe and the Americas, according to executive chairman Ana Botín. However, its European home market may be a big disadvantage in Citi’s looming auction of Mexican lender Banamex.
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The rule change will be phased in, but shares in publicly listed fintechs dip.
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After the 2020 sale of its US bank, BBVA’s global ambitions in retail are alive and well. It has entered Brazil with digital bank Neon, ploughed more capital into UK app-based lender Atom Bank and launched in Italy in a way that presages branchless growth across the eurozone.
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Vaca muerta is an enormous oil and gas field, but it may be too late to exploit it.
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The first sovereign sustainability-linked bond has been announced, and it is no surprise that it is coming from Latin America. Investors and bankers will follow Chile’s transaction carefully, but is the issuer’s decision to enter war-spooked markets a sign of confidence or recklessness?
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Beny Podlubny, head of XP Private, talks to Euromoney about the metaverse, risk appetite, international expansion and why Brazilian clients like to keep things close to home.
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Itaú’s Argentinian firm is its smallest. Nevertheless, innovation in its retail segment could be a game-changer in the country – and potentially the region.
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The chance to acquire Citi’s Mexican business could attract some unexpected bidders.
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Citi’s decision to withdraw from consumer banking in Mexico demonstrates the extent to which fintech players have transformed this market. How prepared are the other incumbents to take on the competition?
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The decision to sell Citibanamex ends the ‘Mexican exception’.
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It took all of six days of the new year before the tone was set: XP Inc’s announcement of its acquisition of Banco Modal. The deal will need regulatory approval, but is being warmly endorsed by the target’s management and its minority shareholder, Credit Suisse.
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German lender renews focus on LatAm after 2015 withdrawal.
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The momentum behind the loss-making bank’s IPO had become unstoppable by year-end, even as the range was eventually cut. It now faces intense scrutiny as a public firm.
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The CEO and CFO aren’t about to abandon the physical in the chase for digital business.
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Rebooting the financial system with a new currency could be what’s needed to give Argentina’s economy a way forward.
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The recent appearance of a golden bull outside the São Paulo's B3 stock exchange was something of a red rag to the city’s populace.
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The Peronist playbook is back in force: Argentina’s monetization of fiscal deficits relies on the banking system buying central bank and government securities. This time around the movie has a new subplot: credit growth in both the corporate and retail sectors is increasingly taking place outside the traditional banking sector.
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The fiscal deterioration of Latin America’s former totem has more than just the pandemic behind it.
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Banco Pan’s turnaround has taken another step forward with its acquisition of ecommerce platform Mosaico. Chief executive Carlos Eduardo Guimarães talks to Euromoney about the importance of growth with profitability.
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Ricardo Lacerda launched a boutique investment bank in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Having finally succeeded in IPOing his firm at the third attempt, he now looks to navigate it through Brazil’s turbulent waters.
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Amazonia Impact Ventures says that financing sustainable agricultural production can reduce deforestation rates.
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The world has been pressuring Brazil about the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest within its borders for decades. New ESG-style initiatives are being adopted by Brazilian banks and businesses, but it could be the climate impact closer to home that’s creating the impetus for real change.
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Gustavo Montezano has been president of BNDES since July 2019. He is on a mission to get Brazil’s state development bank to adapt to the new financial reality of ESG. How the resultant tensions play out will be crucial to the development of Brazil and the world.
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Brazil’s central bank attempts to redress the country’s woeful environmental reputation with climate-related stress tests.
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Other Latin American countries watch with interest as El Salvador’s bitcoin experiment gets off to a faltering start.
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Chilean corporates can now sell through Euroclear, following the sovereign’s successful experience.
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Bank CEOs do not like it, but the regulators are fostering competition.
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Private sector investment led to a Q1 GDP surge, with drought and energy shortages the main threat to economic revival.
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Payments company prices above range as it shrugs off regional valuation constraints on Nasdaq debut.
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Founder and former chief executive Guilherme Benchimol was keen to stress the mould-breaking attributes of his chosen successor as he passed the reins of XP Inc to Thiago Maffra in May.
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The Swiss bank’s move onshore comes as other foreign players are leaving.
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BBVA is relying more on its Latin America business. And the countries in that region are relying more and more on the global bank in turn. BBVA’s global head of country monitoring, Jorge Sáenz-Azcúnaga, explains how he expects this symbiosis to evolve.
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In recent years, Brazil has endured famine, flood and pestilence. What’s next?
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The cost advantages for some fintechs will become compromised as they begin to build physical operations. Euromoney speaks to Sergio Furio, CEO of Brazilian secured lender Creditas, about moving into the real world.
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State-owned Caixa Economica cashes out of its Pan investment with R$2 billion profit.
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Bankers sign up to open letter decrying the government’s handling of the crisis.
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Liquidity events rather than asset migration drive market share gains.
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The country’s president has responded to falling approval ratings and the threat of a trucker strike by raising bank taxes.
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The country’s banks have become accustomed to the disruption caused by the new challengers, but XP Bank could take this to a whole new level.
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Given its reputation, it’s not surprising that Argentina’s bonds are pricing in a high chance of default in coming years. It’s a little harder to understand why the country’s creditors are enabling this.
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Milton Maluhy officially became Itaú’s new CEO at the beginning of February. He now faces the challenge of cutting the bank down to size.
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The bank's management is confident that pandemic losses will be contained.
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Data provides quantification into central but opaque market trend; PayU plans to add credit services to clients’ customers at check-out.
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Emerging markets have regained some of the buoyancy lost during the early months of the coronavirus crisis, but analyst opinions hint at the difficulty of identifying which EM currencies investors should favour.
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Brazil should be well placed to benefit from renewed interest in forestry projects, but the country’s restrictive land laws could lead foreign investment to flow elsewhere.
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Brazil's Nubank is the world’s most valuable fintech in the digital banking space – now worth over $25 billion. In his first interview this year, chief executive and co-founder David Velez explains why he’s in no rush to IPO and why he would rather focus on the huge opportunity left in Brazil and elsewhere in the region.
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LatAm has seen a surge in ESG bond issuance this year, as banks and corporates play catch up in the sector.
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The position of CEO Andre Brandao – and his plan to rationalize the bank's cost base – are both surrounded in doubt.
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Daniel Darahem has returned from Asia to take the reins of JPMorgan’s Brazilian business. He predicts that the coming decade will witness transformation at a speed never seen before for both the bank and the country.
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The congressional debate on Mexico's controversial proposed currency bill has been postponed, but opponents, including the country's central bank, should not celebrate too soon.
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Adopting orthodox policies in a bid to secure IMF agreement is a positive for Argentina, but regulations still restrict the banks compounding big FX exposures.
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Brazil’s fintechs and digital challenger banks are making more ground than traditional firms with the central bank’s new payments system.
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Brazil’s richest man leaves behind privately held banking empire. Antagonism between sons could lead to a power struggle
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Itaú Unibanco continues to outperform its peers in Brazilian banking, but its traditional competitors aren’t the real problem.
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Is a slew of pulled deals really a sign of a healthy IPO market?
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Three presidents in a month isn’t enough to deter buyers of the country’s century bond.
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UBS’s strategy of creating emerging markets growth through partnerships is writ large in its joint venture with Banco do Brasil. Can the new entity become more than the sum of its parts?
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Brazil’s central bank launches a free instant-payments tool.
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dLocal payments platform 'exists to solve complexity'
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In a year of shocks and surprises, it’s hard to say where Mexico’s economic and financial performance ranks – but it’s up there.
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Banco Inter’s chief executive João Vitor Menin is a banking revolutionary. His vision of the bank’s future is a super app, supporting both e-commerce and financial services. He is refreshingly fearless about upsetting the established order.
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The BRICS economies, which between them represent 40% of the world population and 32% of its GDP, are a powerful force for the private banking industry as their economic engines drive wealth creation. But they are all distinct markets with their own unique opportunities and challenges.
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The former president of Brazil’s central bank spent six months cooling off before joining Credit Suisse.
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In stark contrast to previous periods of crisis, Brazil’s private-sector banks have been growing market share this year as the public banks have retrenched. This should translate to a busy deal pipeline as they look to refinance.
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Credit Suisse has hired several big guns in the battle for the banking market in Brazil. Chief among them is Ilan Goldfajn, ex president of the central bank of Brazil.
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Brazil’s largest fintech has 5% market share and now poses strategic challenge to market leaders.
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Chile’s new financial portability law came into effect in September, providing a huge shot in the arm to financial innovation in Latin America’s most stable banking market.
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Nubank’s acquisition of Easynvest this month is just one example of how the financial market in Brazil is developing at a dizzying speed.
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Brazilian bank set to take in US firm’s domestic bankers and clients.
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The penny is finally dropping – and bankers in Brazil appear to be taking deforestation in the Amazon seriously.
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How can quantitative easing best alleviate the financial fallout from Covid-19? Unconventional monetary policies make investors in emerging markets uncomfortable – especially in Latin America. Little wonder that central banks are treading a cautious path.
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Citi’s scale across the emerging markets is unrivalled, and its investment bankers have been successful in playing to that strength throughout the last year.
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The markets have been very relaxed about emerging markets adopting quantitative easing – and that, in itself, could become a problem.
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Local scepticism over proposed debt offer rises as bid to include GDP warrants rejected.
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Euromoney Country RiskEl Salvador dives, while Panama copes as trade buckles, remittances drop and fiscal pressures intensify.
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Private sector digital adoption is surging because of the pandemic. The resultant efficiencies will partially offset pressure on profitability at the bank.
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The best bank for financing in the region is Goldman Sachs.
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Credit Suisse wins the award for Latin America’s best bank for wealth management.
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Latin America’s best bank this year is BBVA. The Spanish-headquartered bank has long been vulnerable to competitors’ claims that it was more a federation than an integrated network of subsidiaries, but the bank’s most recent performance shows that the management – overseen by Jorge Sáenz-Azcúnaga, head of country monitoring at BBVA – has addressed this weakness.
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Santander is Latin America’s best bank for small and medium-sized enterprises. Many banks have SME offerings but few, if any, use the segment so effectively as one of the fundamental drivers of its growth.
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This year Vision Banco wins the award for Latin America’s best bank for corporate responsibility.
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Across sustainable finance and microfinance, BBVA is working to support greener and more inclusive economies. It wins the award for best bank in Latin America for sustainable finance.
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Banreservas responded to the national state of emergency brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic by working closely with the Dominican Republic’s authorities and the central bank to keep the banking system liquid and avoid corporate insolvencies.
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Scotiabank Chile wins the award for the region’s best bank transformation.
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Under the leadership of chief executive Rodolfo Tabash, BAC International has developed a regional response to the Covid-19 crisis, bringing together a multi-jurisdictional, multi-disciplinary committee to harmonize its response and ensure best practice is used throughout its Credomatic operations in central America.
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The best digital bank award goes to Banco Inter, which has pulled off the difficult feat of keeping both its investors happy following its 2018 IPO – as it matures from a rapid growth story – and its clients.
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It is an understatement to say that the operating environment for Argentine banks has been deteriorating during the past year. The sovereign is heading towards default, and the economy was firmly in a deep recession before Covid-19 emerged.
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BBVA is the big winner in Latin America in this year's Euromoney Awards for Excellence.
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Citi worked hard to mitigate the effects of the pandemic throughout central and Latin America and, given its history and geographical spread throughout the region, its impact was widespread.
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No investment bank has a greater reach in central America and the Caribbean region than Citi.
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The 2020 award for the best bank for advisory goes to BR Partners. It is an outstanding growth story: the investment bank boutique was opened just 10 years ago by founder and chief executive Ricardo Lacerda, previously of Citi and Goldman Sachs in Brazil.
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Clients of transactions services want simplicity and speed, neither of which is easy for companies operating in regulatory cumbersome and often tech-light jurisdictions of Latin America.
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Many of the small countries that make up the central American and Caribbean region are dependent on tourism for income. They will likely be hard hit this year.
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This year the region’s best investment bank is JPMorgan. In a highly competitive year, the US bank claims the award because of the unrivalled breadth of its mandates across investment banking products, as well as its dominance in many of the region’s countries.
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The awkward truce in Brazil between XP Inc and Itaú broke down in a very public way in June.
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Social distancing and government payments are turbo-charging digital bank’s growth.
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The country is losing the war on the coronavirus, as well as wasting the ensuing digital payments opportunity eagerly grasped by others in Latin America.
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Having raised liquidity in March, Latin American companies are now trying to assess the best way forward. Will they need new debt, fresh equity, or will the economy return sufficiently for them to simply repay?
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There is a plausible recovery scenario that would enable Latin America to exit the crisis on a better path than it was on before.
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Collapse in Brazilian equities places a question mark over recent growth in retail investment.
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The bank reports record profits, loan growth and no advance provisioning while Bradesco and Itaú focus on risks ahead.
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Breathless reporting of the details of the Argentine government’s offer to bondholders tends to presuppose there is doubt in the outcome.
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Peru’s laudable coronavirus emergency measures won’t prevent its banks from taking a substantial hit – so what does that mean for less-well-run economies?
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The president of the Inter-American Development Bank tells Euromoney how the bank is reacting to the Covid-19 virus and why he thinks the lasting legacy could be a positive one.
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When corporates needed access to credit as the Covid-19 crisis ravaged Brazil’s markets, the big banks baulked or raised their costs dramatically. Is this the price of such a consolidated market, one that also provides much-needed stability in times of turmoil?
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Risk that high leverage in global corporates could spark 'new global financial crisis'.
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Bank scraps share buyback and postpones dividend decision as COO Arana warns lack of fiscal response from the government risks deeper decline.
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They seemed to be emerging, blinking, into the light of a normal financial system under former president Mauricio Macri, but that moment has gone; the new administration has sent real rates negative, while economic and credit growth look to be years away.
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Previous crises led to consolidated, profitable sector that should be able to weather coming storm.
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It might be too much to say the country was bouncing back before Covid-19 struck, but it was beginning to look a bit better. Not now though.
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The new government’s decision to go after Mercado Libre has the sector worried.
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The economic fallout from the virus is beginning to impact regional currencies and growth forecasts.
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The government’s response to the lack of financial inclusion is to build thousands of new banks throughout the country, but it faces a big challenge in weaning potential customers away from the black economy.
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Four years after Scotiabank last took its investor day on the road, the bank put on a show in Santiago in January to highlight the advances it has made in its international banking strategy.
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Brazil’s changing macroeconomic environment is shaking up the investment industry – and there has been no bigger winner than XP Inc. In his first post-IPO interview with the international media, CEO Guilherme Benchimol explains the firm’s competitive edge over banks.
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The gravitational pull of Latin America on Santander has resulted in the move to appoint Santander Brasil CEO Sergio Rial to the bank’s board as executive director.
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The rhetorical battle between Argentina’s government, the IMF and bondholders is heating up but the bigger – largely ignored – issue appears to be the country’s looming financial collapse.
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The country needs to raise up to $4.5 billion in the international markets this year – and it won’t be easy.
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XP has been outperforming even its most optimistic analysts’ projections in recent quarters.
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It has made waves with an IPO and by building a strong retail banking platform. Less well known is how the firm is gatecrashing the country’s thriving wealth management industry.
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With Santander Brasil registering record profits and Santander Mexico promising the same, the outlook for the group looks Latin. As its European business stalls, how will the bank be affected by Latin America’s shift from engine of growth to core business?
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Report says they must cut costs by 10%; years of 20%+ ROE are coming to an end.
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The process of financial digitalization has been a challenge for journalists covering Brazil’s banking sector.
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Social housing bond comes just two weeks after mid-January economics report.
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Cryptocurrencies have a specific use-case in countries where local currencies are in crisis, but elsewhere they remain a volatile speculative investment and will struggle to take off as a means of payment.
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If Brazil does well, Bradesco does well. Its management is confident there are good times ahead.
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The bank may be at the peak of its value creation, as the government looks to promote greater competition in Brazilian banking.
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Itaú retains 49% stake, now equivalent to 10% of the group’s market cap, as rapid growth leads to runaway valuation.
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It’s 2020: welcome to the decade of low-cost Brazilian banking.
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The country’s positive real interest rates shine like a beacon for international banks.
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Brazil’s currency hit an all-time low nominal value on November 18, closing trading at R$4.20 to the dollar.
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UBS’s country head refuses to comment on whether Banco do Brasil has been given a ‘call option on the bank’s Brazilian IB business’.
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Itaú overtakes state-controlled Banco do Brasil to become the largest lender.
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As the number of financial technology startups in Brazil balloons, there is a growing sense that the pin to puncture their growth is one critical area of operation: credit. Full service in the digital age is a serious, long-term challenge for new entrants and traditional players.
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Brazil should be careful of learning the wrong lessons from Chilean protests.
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IMF conversations positive but with a streak of caution.
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Lower local rates have increased price and increased demand onshore.
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The French bank is in the process of being granted a banking licence by the Mexican Banking Commission and the Mexican central bank, likely by the end of the year.
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Critics says IFC's standards lack rigour of World Bank’s 2018 Environmental and Social Framework; Bank accepts it has made many mistakes, caused environmental and social damage in the Amazon.
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Using a model of up-front financing for large one-off projects, project finance for permanence may be the mechanism that can help reach the goal of 50% of the planet’s natural areas being protected in perpetuity.
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The Latin American nation has gone all-out to rebuild its natural environment over the last three decades, with great results – now it needs the rest of the world to pay attention.
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Deforestation – and the cattle farming that largely drives it – has caught the world’s attention. While some environmentalists suggest punitive measures to make Brazil a better steward of the forest, there are already more constructive, private-sector responses to the challenge. Can they scale quickly enough to save the Amazon?
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International investors remain cautious, despite a strong performance in deal activity this year.
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Three-quarters of fund managers that responded to a recent Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey think that Mexico is going to lose its investment grade status.
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Road testing the likely economic and financial policies come the October general election.
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One country showed the way forward for Latin American sovereigns nearly 35 years ago. Many have tried to follow. Have they succeeded?
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Investors expect a radical transformation in Brazilian financial services in the next five years: this enthusiasm is depressing incumbent stocks while driving strong valuations for start-ups.
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Banorte CEO says market will be 'surprised' by what comes next for the bank; fintech growth unlikely to impact bank growth in the short-term.
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The locals in Brazil are enjoying their home-field investment banking advantage.
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Argentina is about to default; again. It will be the ninth time in the past 200 years, and the Latin American sovereign is about to test its ability to survive beyond the ascribed mortality of cats.
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When Mauricio Macri won the last presidential election in 2015, the future for Argentina’s banks looked rosy: a spate of international debt and equity deals confirmed the optimism. No one who participated in those deals – including Galicia’s CEO Fabián Kon – thought the country would soon be back to square one.
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Bradesco’s digital bank start-up has grown rapidly and is already looking to leave the bank’s existing corporate structure.
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Success for pensions reform in the Congress – the long-held litmus test of Brazilian recovery – has buoyed asset prices and led to a flurry of activity.
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The rapid fall in interest rates in Brazil, from a peak of 14.25% in 2016 to 6.5% in February 2018, created expectations among analysts that the biggest banks’ famously high net interest margin was finally about to be eroded.
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This year Bancolombia wins the award for the region’s best bank for corporate responsibility. Some 62% of Bancolombia’s employees are women and 57% of them are in leadership roles. These are some of the highest numbers for women in banking in the world. Why?
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Despite the headwinds for region’s banks, there were some outstanding performances that demonstrate what can be achieved without macroeconomic support. The best example of this was Santander Brasil, Latin America’s best bank.
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Latin America’s best bank for sustainable finance this year is BBVA.
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Economic growth is strengthening in central American and the Caribbean. The IMF expects the region to grow at about 2% this year and 2.5% next year.
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This year, the region’s best investment bank is BTG Pactual. It climbed back to leadership in its domestic market and grew strongly elsewhere in the region.
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As trade disputes between China and the US continue, Latin America has been caught in the middle. Countries across the continent have been forced to choose whether they trade with their American neighbour or their Asian partner.
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For the second year running Credit Suisse is Latin America’s best bank for wealth management, this year bolstered by the completion of a three-year turnaround across the whole bank.
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Banco do Brasil wins the award for the region’s best bank transformation.
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The region’s best bank for small and medium-sized enterprises is Bancolombia.
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Latin America’s best bank for advisory is Goldman Sachs. The bank has continued with its strategy to deliver highly complex, large-scale deals that set it apart from the local and international competition.
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Digital banking brings opportunities – especially so for startups. Unencumbered by bricks and mortar branches – as well other fixed costs associated with the traditional banks – many purely digital firms have achieved impressive growth.
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The best bank for financing in Latin America is JPMorgan. The bank’s pedigree in debt and structured products isn’t news to anyone who works in investment banking, but in recent years the breadth of its offer has been enhanced by increased depth in client and product coverage.
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Argentina’s politicians have played their cards for the coming presidential election – Cristina Kirchner surprised everyone by lining up behind Alberto Fernandez.
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$2.5 billion deal makes bank more profitable and a purer ‘Latam’ play; CEO says still huge upside on valuations, and revenue growth to come.
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HSBC wants to triple both onshore and offshore revenues, profits and ebitda in Brazil within five years.
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Frustration is building quickly in Brazil. What was supposed to be the beginning of a credit cycle – and a structural improvement in long-term economic growth – is becoming just another false dawn.
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HSBC, JPMorgan and Mizuho lend Mexico’s oil company $8 billion after investors show no interest in non-deal roadshow – and that’s the least of the firm’s problems.
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Move adds offshore platform for private clients; bank argues BAC Florida Bank deal adds to its story as the momentum play in the market.
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The investment landscape is shifting rapidly as falling returns on sovereign fixed income assets force investors to look elsewhere for returns. Retail investors in particular are playing an important role in the transformation of local capital markets.
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New regulation would see top-12 banks adopt open banking second half of next year; central bank hopes better risk management will lower cost of credit, spur growth.
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The 100-day mark of Brazil’s new president, Jair Bolsonaro, has recently passed; no one – not even the government itself – pretended the time had been well spent.
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The phony war has been long, but the first real battle has now begun in Brazil’s fintech space.
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Lower interest rates point to lower NIMs this year; Growing competition from newly regulated fintech sector will lead banks’ costs to rise.
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Q1 2019 data shows severe year-on-year falls in activity; hangover from 2018 blamed: signs of recovery for quarters ahead.
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Protectionism is undermining an otherwise moderate global outlook as growth continues, labour markets tighten and geopolitical crises calm.
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After so long, private bank clients and even retail investors are no longer happy with the returns from government bonds; instead, they are searching for yield and pushing up the value of risk assets.
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The government is pushing structural reforms despite the economic crisis; new tax regulations aimed to bring money onshore.
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There are key differences between the growth outlook for Argentina’s banks today and that of Brazil’s banks from 2003 to 2008.
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Monetary policy is now much more effective in Brazil and it’s having some interesting consequences.
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The 50th anniversary issues of Euromoney are forcing journalists to take a broader sweep of the issues we cover than the usual month-by-month perspective.
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Recoveries, reschedulings, crises and scandal: no region’s financial markets have been as turbulent as Latin America’s over the last five decades. Euromoney had a ringside seat for all the booms and busts, and access to some of the colourful characters – from presidents to bank chiefs – that have tried to steer Latin America towards a more sustainable path.
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Of all the global corridors of trade and investment, the one between Latin America and the Middle East is among the least travelled.
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The region’s leading banks produce some of the best numbers in the global industry, and success in retail banking – and a hard-learned approach to risk management – are core; could the growth of digital banking bring a new era of change?
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While the region has proved its economic and financial resilience in recent years, it’s time to look ahead and become competitive for whatever the next 50 years will bring, says former Colombia finance minister Mauricio Cárdenas.
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Staying committed to a region where deal flow sometimes stops overnight is tough for an international investment bank. Local firms and the few foreign competitors that have stuck around hope to benefit from any upturn in business. The in-and-outers might find it hard to get back.
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After decades of trying, have LatAm’s central bankers finally steadied the ship? Mexico's Agustin Carstens, one of the monetary policy stalwarts of the region, takes stock.
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Since Roberto Setubal became chief executive of Itaú Unibanco in 1994, the bank’s growth has been spectacular – but the next stage is harder to target.
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Argentina is on a precipice, Venezuela has a humanitarian crisis and Brazil is just exiting its worst-ever recession – so far, so Latin America. But some countries have shown a path to sustainable growth and others are now grasping the nettle of reform. In a series of articles to commemorate 50 years of Euromoney, we speak to architects of previous recovery plans and to today's heads of the region's top banks and investment banks and ask: could an end to Latin America's long history of boom and bust finally be in sight?
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The country is now in default on almost all of its foreign currency bonds; investors need to think ahead about the debt renegotiation to come.
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Multiple positive factors point to outperformance of Brazil’s banks in EM, but pensions reform risks remain.
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They aren’t making headlines – for the right reasons.
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I can’t seem to stop worrying about Argentina in its election year.
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Itaú is performing well, but faces challenges in its corporate banking unit.
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With its focus on SMEs, the bank is well set to grow with the Brazilian economy
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Santander’s Brazilian bank took lots of deserved acclaim when Santander released its global third-quarter results, but keep an eye on Mexico.
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New president’s move to the left sparks growth fears as banks hit by deteriorating macro outlook as well as fee regulations.
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A lower-profile announcement caught Euromoney’s eye after the bluster of the G20 meetings in Buenos Aires.
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Capital markets could be in for a bumper year in Brazil in 2019, with bankers hoping that a strong economic inheritance and a market-friendly policy agenda will prompt a jolt of activity.
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Concerns over president-elect Amlo could see investors rethink their Mexico exposure.
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Buyers and sellers need to show some discipline.
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Central bank taking further action to lower credit costs through competition; Banco Inter’s post-IPO growth shows digital banking opportunity.
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Santiago Peña helped secure Paraguay’s relentless upward trajectory while minister of finance – now he has switched to the private sector and has the perfect perspective to judge the outlook for the Mercosur countries.