Latin America

Colombia       Uribe: Washington’s ally   Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, the conservative right-wing leader reelected in May, remains Washington’s closest ally in a region governed overwhelmingly by center-left administrations. Critics, however, assert that the 53- year-old attorney, educated ...

LATIN AMERICA     Sleepless in Madrid: Santander chairman Emilio Botin Spanish banking giant Santander is struggling to contain the fallout from the more than $3 billion loss its clients sustained through the bank’s investments in funds linked to disgraced ...

BRAZIL     Brazil’s central bank: Attempting to boost banks’ trade finance lines With commodity prices plummeting from last year’s highs, Latin American governments are seeking ways to support their trade sectors as part of their economic stimulus plans. Strong ...

Brazilian oil giant Petrobras will use debt issuance to finance new offshore exploration. The Petrobras state-controlled oil company sold $1.5 billion of 10-year bonds on international markets in February. The deal, which carries a 7.875% coupon, was managed by HSBC, ...

NEWS Investors are able to buy shares in fundamentally strong companies in Latin America at record low price/earnings ratios after a sell-off in recent months triggered by falling commodity prices, according to Auerbach Grayson, a New York-based brokerage firm that ...

Brazil's air force is helping finance Embraer's $500 million development program for a new military transport plane Following Brazil’s recent credit boom, banks are starting to face increased customer arrears. A research report from BB Investimentos, a division of Banco ...

FIRST COLOMBIAN ETF TRADES ON NYSE ARCA The first exchange-traded fund that seeks to replicate the performance of the 20 most-liquid securities in the Colombian market has begun trading on NYSE Arca, an all-electronic US trading platform. Global X Management, ...

LATIN AMERICA Once considered relatively immune to the global economic slump, Latin America is facing hard times as commodity prices crumble, trade dwindles and Venezuela’s oil-funded regional largess begins to dry up.     On a roller coaster ride: Wild ...

Regional report Calls to renegotiate Nafta are growing louder, and as the three member countries’ economic travails deepen, the arguments for a revision are gaining ground.   The economic crisis that began in the United States has had a dramatic ...

AFRICA REGIONAL WINNER Standard Bank COUNTRY WINNER Angola BES Angola Botswana Standard Chartered Bank Botswana Cote d’Ivoire Ecobank Ethiopia NIB International Bank Gambia Trust Bank Ghana Ghana Commercial Bank Guinea International Commercial Bank Kenya Barlcays Bank Kenya Libya Al-Wahda Bank ...

GLOBAL BANKS Corporate Bank JPMorgan Chase Consumer Bank HSBC Private Bank Credit Suisse Asset Management State Street Global Advisors Custody The Bank of New York Mellon Investment Bank Goldman Sachs Cash Management Citi Trade Finance BNP Paribas Foreign Exchange Deutsche ...

BRAZIL     Revving up: BV stake boosts Banco do Brasil’s auto loan portfolio The Brazilian government returned to international capital markets in January with $1.025 billion in dollar-denominated global bonds maturing in 2019. The 10-year issue, led by Goldman ...

CHILE     Chile's president Bachelet: Stimulating economic growth. While high copper prices had maintained Chile’s economy as Latin America’s strongest, it seems the party is over as prices plummet and demand wanes. The South American country, the world’s largest ...

Ecuador     Correa: Buying political capital with debt restructuring. Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa has made good on his 2006 presidential campaign promise to default on any foreign debt deemed illegitimate, defaulting on $3.9 billion in global bonds. This marks ...

BRAZIL       Presidents Medvedev and Lula call for the first-ever BRIC summit. Eager to maintain its status as Latin America’s largest financial institution, Banco do Brasil, Brazil’s largest state-controlled bank, announced the acquisition of Nossa Caixa, a bank ...

COSTA RICA     President Arias successfully concludes free trade agreement. Four years after it was first signed, Costa Rican lawmakers in November finally ratified Cafta, the free trade agreement between Central America, the Dominican Republic and the United States. ...

DR NEWS     Cementos Argos, the fifth-largest cement producer in Latin America, began trading its shares in the US over-the-counter market in the form of American depositary receipts. The Medellín, Colombia-based company makes white and gray cement, as well ...

ARGENTINA       President Kirchner makes overtures to avoid debt default. After months of analysts’ warnings that Argentina may be facing a new debt default, Standard & Poor’s agreed. The ratings agency lowered Argentina’s sovereign rating on October 31 ...

BRAZIL     Brazil’s banks continued their consolidation trend, with the most recent deal in November creating Latin America’s largest financial group. Itaú, Brazil’s second-largest non-state-owned bank, announced its acquisition of Unibanco, the country’s third-largest, in a stock transaction valued ...

LATIN AMERICA President Lula’s bold program of social and economic reform has become a model for economies in Latin America and beyond.   Under Lula, Brasilia has focused on growing the economy in a way that benefits people at all ...