The purpose of this research is to examine the international insertion of Brazilian banking system, in comparison with the South Korean and Mexican experiences. Since the second half of the 1990s, these countries deepened the financial integration between their economies and international...

Some countries in Latin America have introduced a tax on bank withdrawals in order to increase revenue. The debit tax has usually been levied in periods of economic turbulence. This paper analyzes the effects of such a tax on real cash holdings and on balances of different types of bank accounts...

This study focuses on equity, private debt, and asset-backed securities markets in Central America. These markets are generally under-developed throughout the region due to several structural problems, economic and political factors, and weaknesses in regulation and in institutional investor...

We analyze the role of institutional investors as providers of long-term capital resources in the Brazilian capital market. Since there is virtually only one provider of long-term financing in Brazil, BNDES - the National Bank for Economic and Social Development, and the fact that the domestic...

The costs of the private banking sector of Argentina are analyzed within the framework of efficiency: X-efficiency, economies of scale and economies of joint-production or scope. The estimations of X-inefficiency, according to the application of the Thick Frontier Approach, indicate a level of...

The bankruptcy of three big private banks (Econocirc;mico, Nacional and Bamerindus) in the beginning of the Plano Real has been attributed to the fast and intense growth of loan after the fall of inflation. The three banks balance sheet data, however, show a decrease in credit amount or a very...

Spanish Abstract: El aumento reciente en los niveles de concentración y regulación de los sistemas financieros alrededor del mundo ha revivido el debate sobre la relación entre concentración bancaria, competencia y estabilidad financiera. En este trabajo se analiza la relación entre estas...

This paper constructs an index of regulatory quality for improving financial inclusion for the purpose of assessing and comparing the quality of rules and regulations in a sample of eight Latin American countries. The index comprises 11 regulatory practices classified into three categories:...

We study how banks' exposure to a sovereign crisis gets transmitted onto the corporate sector. To do so we use data on the universe of banks and firms in Argentina during the crisis of 2001. We build a model characterized by matching frictions in which firms establish (long-term) relationships...

Despite many critics and mitigated effects, microfinance continues to grow all over the world, and equally in Haiti. Beyond rapid expansion, to really contribute to local economic development, microfinance organizations (MFOs) need to help micro entrepreneurs to better manage their businesses....