Ecuador’s banks have undergone sweeping changes, as the Rafael Correa-led government seeks to redress the balance between lenders and their customers. Officials say the interventions are necessary, but with big banks hit the hardest, bankers are asking just how this regulation benefits the market.

Increasing tariffs on luxury goods and social sector government spending may not be conventional economic policy moves, but they have worked for Ecuador’s finance minister, Patricio Rivera, who has helped the country's gross domestic product to grow while reducing its poverty rate, decreasing unemployment and increasing the country's energy capacity.

A new proposal in Mexico is urging foreign-owned banks to list on the country's stock exchange. But while these banks achieve high returns on equity and the global equity markets remain volatile, the Mexican regulators may have a wait on their hands before these plans come to fruition.

With its high economic growth rates and a good macroeconomic performance, Peru faces both the challenge of its number one trading partner, the US, bracing itself for another recession, and the fact that poverty now affects 31% of the South American country's population.

The International Monetary Fund is being called into question amid fears that it is short of the necessary resources to temper the eurozone crisis and accusations that the historically Eurocentric organisation is not reforming its voting system fast enough to embrace emerging economies.

Bolivia's economy minister, Luis Arce explains that the careful management of the country's finances over the past few years have left it in a strong position to not only cope with such demands, but to continue to grow.

Some US community banks managed themselves conservatively and stuck to their knitting while others expanded too quickly on the back of the real-estate boom. While the former are prospering, the problems and failures among the latter are adding up.

The recently approved merger of Banorte and Ixe might not spur a consolidation trend within Mexico's locally owned banks but it is a positive sign of change as the market seeks out growth opportunities and increased liquidity.

Mexico's finance minister explains how investing in infrastructure will rebalance the country's export-heavy economy

The finance minister of Chile discusses the country's "very exceptional" fiscal situation, and tells how it is recovering from an earthquake that shattered the country earlier this year. Writers Jane Monahan and Brian Caplen