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DatabankMarch 1 2018

Latam financial services FDI drops sharply

Leading cities attracted less than half the financial services investment of last year’s top 10, but São Paulo continues to thrive. Silvia Pavoni reports.
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Latin America’s economy has started to pick up but foreign firms may be delaying any expansion decisions a little longer. According to estimates by greenfield monitor fDi Markets, in 2017 the region’s top 10 destinations by financial services foreign direct investment (FDI) attracted less than half the funds received by their counterparts a year earlier: $783.6m compared with $1.64bn.

Brazil leads both inward tables. São Paulo heads the 2017 ranking, with $280.9m and one project: the opening of a new office by IDB Invest, the private sector arm of the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank.

It is followed by Mexico City’s $175m and five other smaller Mexican locations. Managua closes the ranking with US-based money transfer company Remitly investing $16m in a new office in Nicaragua’s capital.

Interestingly, São Paulo’s recent figure of $280.9m matches its 2016 inward financial services FDI. This is due to the expansion project by US advisory firm Gordon Brothers Group. However, that figure grants it only second place in the ranking, after Rio de Janeiro’s $561.8m.

Outward FDI has not seen any significant changes, with the top five financial centres in Latin America and the Caribbean generating similar flows. Both tables are led by Bermudan financial hubs, Hamilton in 2017 and Pembroke a year earlier.

Latam IFCs 0218

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Read more about:  Americas , Databank , Rankings & data
Silvia Pavoni is editor in chief of The Banker. Silvia also serves as an advisory board member for the Women of the Future Programme and for the European Risk Management Council, and is part of the London council of non-profit WILL, Women in Leadership in Latin America. In 2019, she was awarded an honorary fellowship by City University of London.
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