When The Banker called his Mexico City office at the end of August, Ricardo Velazquez was getting ready to fly to New York to join a private meeting of bankers from around the world. As the head of international banking and trade at Banorte, Mexico’s largest locally owned lender, he was going to discuss possible solutions to the fast-spreading, unintentional effects of ‘de-risking’ on his business line.
Many others in Mexico and Latin America are concerned about this issue. “The problem has become more and more intense this year,” says Luis Niño de Rivera, vice-chairman of Banco Azteca, also in Mexico. “We don’t have precise numbers as yet but I can tell you that many countries are suffering in Latin America because of this de-risking concept. It [means] basically shutting the door, it is saying: ‘I won’t deal with the risk and won’t allow money to flow.’ That’s not a very smart response to a global problem.”
