An Interim Filling the Gap in Multilateral, Regional, and Domestic Hard Law Deficiencies, Respecting Financial Services Integration within the Americas

This chapter addresses the topic of financial services integration in the Americas. The author identifies two major external catalysts (internationalization of U.S. and Canadian banks and the global pervasiveness of international banking and financial standards) and analyzes the de facto integration process in Latin America and the Caribbean. The concluding section contains a number of relevant observations on financial integration, including the importance of strong domestic, sub-regional, regional, and hemispheric institutions and the need for a constructive convergence process to join shallow integration based on hard law and limited national policy coordination and deeper integration ruled by soft law and requiring coordination of domestic policies