With the fastest growing economy in Latin America and the lowest rate of inflation, Colombia has a lot going for it. But foreign banks looking to enter the market are finding that opportunities are rare and competition is intense. 

Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia’s centrist president, is the front-runner in presidential elections due to start in May and, if national polls prove correct, looks set to win a second term in office.

The swathe of new reforms being proposed by Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto have the potential to open up new avenues of business for the country's banks, both large and small.

A groundswell of support for green finance means headway is being made in the transition to a low-carbon economy, with new sustainable models of finance, the issuance of green bonds and initiatives to level the playing field among banks. 

With Janet Yellen set to assume the position of head of the US Federal Reserve, her defining challenge will be tapering the Fed’s huge quantitative easing programme. Jane Monahan looks for clues as to her likely stance.

The 2013 meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are, as has been the case in recent years, set to focus on the global economy and economic recovery, but will the internal wranglings of the group overshadow proceedings? 

With criticism from both outside and inside the organisation, the World Bank Group has had to rethink its strategy and objectives in recent years. World Bank president Jim Yong Kim discusses these changes in an exclusive interview with The Banker, explaining why the institution remains a vital force on the world stage and how it plans to tackle pressing global problems such as poverty and climate change.

Colombia might boast one of the strongest economies in Latin America but the country's finance minister, Mauricio Cardenas, is more than aware that its economic growth – largely dominated by its energy and mining sectors, which benefit only a small proportion of the population – needs to be diversified and its rewards better distributed.

Colombia's well regulated but relatively unsaturated banking sector represents a good growth opportunity, but the dominance of its three largest lenders makes it a difficult market to enter.

While many of the US's local lenders were hit by the subprime crisis, most of the larger regional banks are now back in growth mode. The Banker profiles four such banks.