Trade finance is emerging as a key part of the Latin American banking business model and is bound to be a hot topic on the agenda at this year's Felaban annual meeting being held in Colombia in November. Ahead of this, The Banker speaks to experts about the challenges and opportunities that this growing business line is creating in the Latin American market.

The tapering of the US Federal reserve's quantitative easing programme and a higher interest rates environment are mopping up liquidity from emerging markets, separating the top-in-class from the current-account-bingers. How does Latin America fare?

Smart regulation and innovative local lenders have helped build Chile's economic might. And with plans to link the country's stock exchange to the exchanges in Peru, Colombia and Mexico, the country is mounting an attack on Brazil's economic dominance in Latin America.

The expansionary monetary policies of developed countries is making life difficult for those in the developing world. So says Chile's central bank governor, who is keen to resist a 'currency war' – for now – and also tells The Banker why central bank independence is of great importance.

Both Santiago and São Paulo are making significant strides towards becoming Latin America's foremost asset management hub. The Chilean capital has extensive experience, while the Brazilian metropolis already boasts the sixth largest asset management industry in the world. However, both are seeing their progress stunted by regulatory and taxation issues.

With the recent Libor scandal failing to shake asset managers' confidence in London, emerging centres will have to work hard if they are to overtake the UK capital as the world's leading asset management centre.

Many of Latin America's high-net-worth individuals are repatriating their funds and an increasing number of foreign investors are targeting the region, thanks to its rapidly expanding economy. With such demand for local product providers, domestic firms are finding themselves having to pit their specialist knowledge against the international reach of large foreign banks, making competition tough.