Archive

February 2001

A Bad Case of Indigestion

M&A

Foreign banks have not had an easy time digesting their Brazilian acquisitions. The record-shattering price Spain's BSCH paid for Banespa will make its integration the m...

A Deal, But No Direction

Argentina

Multilateral creditors recently gave Argentina a $39.7 billion aid package to keep the country afloat. The deal?s terms are sweet and the country still has believers, but...

A Renewed Yen For Latin Bonds

Asia

After going up in smoke during Asia's financial crisis, the Samurai market has sprung to life, offering a valuable fund-raising alternative to Latin sovereign borrowers.

Building on a Boom

Panama

Panama's construction industry is humming along as the conversion of Canal Zone properties and new highway concessions keep the permits rolling. But financial and environ...

Business & Banking

Mexico

Citibank's New Start

Mexico

The bank says its problems with Banco Confía, an ailing Mexican retail bank it bought in 1998, are close to an end. Senior Citibankers say the bank is at last ready to st...

Cleaning Up Its Fiscal Act

Panama

Panama quickly responded to an international blacklisting by passing new bank laws that prove its commitment to get tough on money launderers and their crimes.

Let the Vendor Beware

As growth in the Latin American telecoms industry exploded, deep-pocketed equipment vendors used financing deals to beat the competition. But this successful marketing to...

Looking Locally for Investors

Chile

Never before has a Latin sovereign issued debt denominated in another Latin American currency. Uruguay's highly successful Chilean-peso bond gave it a new investor base a...

Managing Nature with Market Means

The deregulation and privatization of Latin America's energy industry should spark the use of financial tools such as weather derivatives to hedge against weather-related...

MarketWatch

Loans

Panama Holds Its Own

Panama

Panama's economy didn't take the nosedive many feared it would when the US military departed just over a year ago. Instead, the country has taken advantage of the existin...

People

People (1)

Brazil

Regulating the Banks

Panama

Panama's Superintendency of Banks is helping the country's banking system adopt and follow an internationally accepted regulatory framework.

Safakeeping Panama's Private Kitty

Panama

Panama has accumulated more than a billion dollars in a social investment trust, funded by the sales of state-owned industries and former US holdings in the Canal Zone....

Sovereign Report

Brazil

Staving Off Obsolescence

Panama

Panama's geography has always been its best asset. Will its strategic location drive prosperity in the new millennium as Panama aims at becoming the Americas' premier tra...

Unshackling Minority Investors

Chile

Chile's new corporate governance law offers a regional blueprint for protecting minority shareholder rights. But a controversial provision gives companies three years to ...

Waiting for a Big Bang

Argentina

Critics say Argentina's problems are due to its fixed exchange rate and the economic effect of pegging the peso to the dollar. Steve H. Hanke, professor of applied econom...