The past two years have seen Brazil's banks endure both a full-blown recession and the widening of a corruption scandal that has reached the very top of the country's business and political worlds.
As the Brazilian economy begins to recover, its banks’ balance sheets continue to improve, as shown in The Banker's ranking of the leading Latin American and Caribbean banks. Itaú Unibanco’s figures are particularly impressive. In dollar terms, by the end of 2016 the bank had expanded its Tier 1 capital by more than one-third, the equivalent of $9.67bn. Its strength is visible even when stripping the benefits of a more favourable exchange rate. Expressed in local currency, the year-on-year Tier 1 capital growth is still an impressive 14.79%.
And it is not only market leaders that have performed well in the country. Banco do Nordeste do Brasil recorded Tier 1 capital growth even greater than Itaú’s, at 82.81%, and leads the highest movers table. Brazil’s other behemoths, Banco do Brasil, Bradesco and Caixa, remain the second, third and fourth largest banks in Latin America, respectively.
Bancolombia, Brazil's BTG Pactual and Banco de la Nación Argentina, on the other hand, climb up to a respective fifth, sixth and seventh positions. Bancolombia makes the biggest jump, from 11th place previously to fifth.
It should be noted that in last year's ranking, Venezuelan banks occupied these positions. Usually Latin America’s high scorers, they are now absent from our regional list. The presence of different official exchange rates and the yawning differences among them, as well as the unofficial rate, obfuscate the analysis of Venezuelan banks. Therefore, we have decided that, while these lenders should continue to appear in the global list, their presence in the regional ranking would distort the picture and obscure the achievements of others in Latin America, hence their omission.
